CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT TELECOM

Telecommunications is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy. It has become especially important in recent years because of enormous growth of information technology (IT) and its significant impact on the rest of the economy. India is perceived to have a special comparative advantage in rural areas would be another thrust area to attain the goal of accelerated economic development and social change. Although the telecom network has grown rapidly in recent years, its growth needs to be accelerated further. It is equally important to sped up structural changes in this sector in line with trends in other countries to ensure that service are not only made available on the scale needed to sustain rapid growth in the economy as a whole but also that their cost are in tune expectations of a modernizing economy.

The telecom industry is advancing like never before. is becoming abundant, and newer technologies combined with liberalization are opening up the remotest areas into the global tele- network.

But not is blissful for the telecom operators and equipment providers. Cut throat competition and demanding customers are pushing telecom companies against a granite wall. Product life cycles are shrinking and simultaneously increasing the risks associated with any new product or service launch.

NEED FOR THE STUDY

• This type of study helps organization to differentiate between realistic & unrealistic customer expectations.

• It helps the organization to delight the customer.

• This study helps determine the factors responsible for increase in customer expectations.

• It helps the organization to know what customers expect actually.

• It helps the organization to set benchmarks & standards.

• It may help the organization to deliver the desired level of service

• It helps the organization to set the quality control goals.

• It helps avoid vague or undefined service designs.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1) Creating awareness to AIRTEL customers about the facilities in postpaid connections.

2) Analyzing the problem faced by 3G and 2G customers.

a. Collecting the data bases of different age group of customers interested in different types of toppings offer.

3) Motivating the customers to take postpaid connections.

4) Analyzing which postpaid plan is more used by customers.

5) Analyzing which type of topping is more used by customers.

6) Analyzing the satisfaction level of customer towards postpaid connection.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is conducted on AIRTEL Guser at ―AIRTEL 3G CENTER‖. The study is confined to the area of Visakhapatnam. The size of the sample was: 100

LIMITATIONS

The present study is subjected to following LIMITATIONS.

1. Method of data collection was through personal interview and therefore bias becomes a major limitation.

2. Due to the time constraints all the customers were not covered.

3. The sample was restricted to 300 customers, which may restrict the scope and completion of study.

4. The scope of study is restricted only in Visakhapatnam.

5. Owing to their pre occupation some customers were unable to answer the complete questionnaire.

DATA COLLECTION

The information needed to further proceed in the project had been collected through primary data and secondary data.

PRIMARY DATA

Primary data consists of information collected for the specific purpose at hand for the purpose of collecting primary data, survey research was used and all the retail outlets sellers using different brands and their competitors were contacted. Survey research is the approach best suited gathering description.

SECONDARY DATA

The secondary data consists of information that already exist somewhere, Having been collected for another purpose. Any researcher begins the research work by first going through the secondary data. Secondary data includes the information available with the company. It may be the findings of research previously done in the field. Secondary data can also be collected from magazines, newspapers, other surveys conducted by known research agencies etc.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The respondents are the mobile postpaid connection holder with AIRTEL 3G toppings facilities. The survey was carried in Visakhapatnam with the sample size of 100. The survey was carried out with the help of a structured questionnaire, which helps in accomplishing the research objectives. The respondents by means of personal interview administer this structured ended

CHAPTER- 2 INDUSTRY PROFILE

HISTORY OF TELECOMMUNICATION

The history of telecommunication began with the use of smoke signals and drums in Africa, the Americas and parts of Asia. In the 1790s, the first fixed systems emerged in Europe; however it was not until the 1830s that electrical telecommunication systems started to appear. This article details the history of telecommunication and the individuals who helped make telecommunication systems what they are today. The history of telecommunication is an important part of the larger history of communication. Early

Early telecommunications included smoke signals and drums. Talking drums were used by natives in Africa, New Guinea and South America, and smoke signals in North America and China. Contrary to what one might think, these systems were often used to do more than merely announce the presence of a military camp. In 1792, a French engineer, built the first visual (or semaphore) system between Lille and Paris. This was followed by a line from Strasbourg to Paris. In 1794, a Swedish engineer, Abraham Edelcrantz built a quite different system from Stockholm to Drottningholm. As opposed to Chappe's system which involved pulleys rotating beams of wood, Edelcrantz's system relied only upon shutters and was therefore faster.[3] However semaphore as a communication system suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers often at intervals of only ten to thirty kilometers (six to nineteen miles). As a result, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880.[4] Telegraph and telephone

A very early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an 'electrochemical' telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Somme ring in 1809, based on an earlier, less robust design of 1804 by Catalan polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo. Both their designs employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent almost all Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers (in von Somme ring‘s design), with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. An electrical current was sequentially applied by the sender through the various wires representing each digit of a message; at the recipient's end the currents electrolyzed the acid in the tubes in sequence, releasing streams of hydrogen bubbles next to each associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message, albeit at a very low baud rate. The principal disadvantage to the system was its prohibitive cost, due to having to manufacture and string-up the multiple wire circuits it employed, as opposed to the single wire (with ground return) used by later telegraphs.

The first commercial was constructed in England by Sir and Sir William Fothergill Cooke. It used the deflection of needles to represent messages and started operating over twenty-one kilometers (thirteen miles) of the Great Western Railway on 9 April 1839. Both Wheatstone and Cooke viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph" not as a new device.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837. Soon after he was joined by who developed the register — a telegraph terminal that integrated a logging device for recording messages to paper tape. This was demonstrated successfully over three miles (five kilometers) on 6 January 1838 and eventually over forty miles (sixty-four kilometers) between Washington, DC and Baltimore on 24 May 1844. The patented invention proved lucrative and by 1851 telegraph lines in the United States spanned over 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers)

The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed on 27 July 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time. Earlier transatlantic cables installed in 1857 and 1858 only operated for a few days or weeks before they failed. The international use of the telegraph has sometimes been dubbed the "Victorian ".

The electric telephone was invented in the 1870s, based on earlier work with harmonic (multi- signal) telegraphs. The first commercial telephone services were set up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London. held the master patent for the telephone that was needed for such services in both countries. The technology grew quickly from this point, with inter-city lines being built and telephone exchanges in every major city of the United States by the mid-1880s. Despite this, transatlantic voice communication remained impossible for customers until January 7, 1927 when a connection was established using radio. However no cable connection existed until TAT-1 was inaugurated on September 25, 1956 providing 36 telephone circuits.

In 1880, Bell and co-inventor Charles Sumner Tainter conducted the world's first telephone call via modulated light beams projected by photo phones. The scientific principles of their invention would not be utilized for several decades, when they were first deployed in military and fiber-optic communications.

Radio and television

In 1832, James Lindsay gave a classroom demonstration of wireless telegraphy to his students. By 1854, he was able to demonstrate a transmission across the Firth of Tay from Dundee to Woodhaven, a distance of two miles (3 km), using water as the transmission medium. Addressing the Franklin Institute in 1893, described and demonstrated in detail the principles of wireless telegraphy. The apparatus that he used contained all the elements that were incorporated into radio systems before the development of the vacuum tube. However it was not until 1900 that was able to wirelessly transmit a human voice. In December 1901, established wireless communication between Britain and Newfoundland, earning him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1909 (which he shared with Karl Braun).[14] On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor publicly demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette pictures at the London department store Selfridges. In October 1925, Baird was successful in obtaining moving pictures with halftone shades, which were by most accounts the first true television pictures. This led to a public demonstration of the improved device on 26 January 1926 again at Selfridges. Baird's first devices relied upon the Nipkow disk and thus became known as the mechanical television. It formed the basis of semi-experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning September 30, 1929.

However for most of the twentieth century televisions depended upon the cathode ray tube invented by Karl Braun. The first version of such a television to show promise was produced by and crude silhouette images were demonstrated to his family on September 7, 1927. Farnsworth's device would compete with the concurrent work of Kalman Tihanyi and Vladimir Zworykin. Zworykin's camera, based on Tihanyi's Radioskop, which later would be known as the Iconoscope, had the backing of the influential Radio Corporation of America (RCA). In the United States, court action between Farnsworth and RCA would resolve in Farnsworth's favour. John Logie Baird switched from mechanical television and became a pioneer of colour television using cathode- ray tubes.

After mid-century the spread of and microwave radio relay allowed television networks to spread across even large countries.

Video telephony

The development of video telephony involved the historical development of several technologies which enabled the use of live video in addition to voice telecommunications. The concept of video telephony was first popularized in the late 1870s in both the United States and Europe, although the basic sciences to permit its very earliest trials would take nearly a half century to be discovered. This was first embodied in the device which came to be known as the video telephone, or videophone, and it evolved from intensive research and experimentation in several telecommunication fields, notably electrical telegraphy, telephony, radio, and television.

The development of the crucial video technology first started in the latter half of the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States, spurred notably by John Logie Baird and AT&T's Bell Labs. This occurred in part, at least by AT&T, to serve as an adjunct supplementing the use of the telephone. A number of organizations believed that video telephony would be superior to plain voice communications. However video technology was to be deployed in analog long before it could become practical—or popular—for videophones.

Video telephony developed in parallel with conventional voice telephone systems from the mid-to-late 20th century. Only in the late 20th century with the advent of powerful video codecs and high-speed broadband did it become a practical technology for regular use. With the rapid improvements and popularity of the Internet, it became widespread thru the use of videoconferencing and webcams, which frequently utilize Internet telephony, and in business, where tele presence technology has helped reduce the need to travel.

Satellite

The first U.S. satellite to relay communications was Project SCORE in 1958, which used a tape recorder to voice messages. It was used to send a Christmas greeting to the world from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1960 NASA launched an Echo satellite; the 100- foot (30 m) aluminized PET film balloon served as a passive reflector for radio communications. Courier 1B, built by Philco, also launched in 1960, was the world's first active repeater satellite.

Telstar was the first active, direct relay commercial . Belonging to AT&T as part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National PTT (Post Office) to develop satellite communications, it was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962, the first privately sponsored space launch. Relay 1 was launched on December 13, 1962, and became the first satellite to broadcast across the Pacific on November 22, 1963. The first and historically most important application for communication satellites was in intercontinental long distance telephony. The fixed Public Switched Telephone Network relays telephone calls from land line telephones to an earth station, where they are then transmitted a receiving satellite dish via a geostationary satellite in Earth orbit. Improvements in submarine communications cables, through the use of fiber-optics, caused some decline in the use of satellites for fixed telephony in the late 20th century, but they still exclusively service remote islands such as Ascension Island, Helena, Diego, and Easter Island, where no submarine cables are in service. There are also some continents and some regions of countries where landline telecommunications are rare to nonexistent, for example Antarctica, plus large regions of Australia, South America, Africa, Canada, China, Russia and Greenland.

After commercial long distance telephone service was established via communication satellites, a host of other commercial telecommunications were also adapted to similar satellites starting in 1979, including mobile satellite phones, satellite radio, satellite television and satellite Internet access. The earliest adaption for most such services occurred in the 1990s as the pricing for commercial satellite transponder channels continued to drop significantly.

Computer networks and the Internet

On September 11, 1940, George Stibitz was able to transmit problems using teletype to his Complex Number Calculator in New York and receive the computed results back at College in New Hampshire. This configuration of a centralized computer or mainframe with remote dumb terminals remained popular throughout the 1950s. However it was not until the 1960s that researchers started to investigate — a technology that would allow chunks of data to be sent to different computers without first passing through a centralized mainframe. A four- network emerged on December 5, 1969 between the University of California, Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of Utah and the University of California, Santa Barbara. This network would become ARPANET, which by 1981 would consist of 213 nodes. In June 1973, the first non-US node was added to the network belonging to Norway's NORSAR project. This was shortly followed by a node in London.

ARPANET's development centered on the Request for Comment process and on April 7, 1969, RFC 1 was published. This process is important because ARPANET would eventually merge with other networks to form the Internet and many of the protocols the Internet relies upon today were specified through this process. In September 1981, RFC 791 introduced the Internet Protocol v4 (IPv4) and RFC 793 introduced the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) — thus creating the TCP/IP protocol that much of the Internet relies upon today. A more relaxed transport protocol that, unlike TCP, did not guarantee the orderly delivery of packets called the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) was submitted on 28 August 1980 as RFC 768. An e-mail protocol, SMTP, was introduced in August 1982 by RFC 821 and http://1.0 a protocol that would make the hyperlinked Internet possible was introduced on May 1996 by RFC 1945.

However not all important developments were made through the Request for Comment process. Two popular link protocols for local area networks (LANs) also appeared in the 1970s. A patent for the Token Ring protocol was filed by Olaf on October 29, 1974. And a paper on the protocol was published by and David Boggs in the July 1976 issue of Communications of the ACM.

Distance telecommunications

Visual, auditory and ancillary methods (non-electrical):

Prehistoric: Fires, , Smoke signals, Communication drums, Horns

 6th century BCE: Mail  5th century BCE: Pigeon post  4th century BCE: Hydraulic  ca. 490 BCE: Heliographs (shield signals)  15th century CE: Maritime flag semaphores  1672: First experimental acoustic (mechanical) telephone  1790: Semaphore lines (optical telegraphs)  1867: Signal lamps  1877: Acoustic phonograph

Basic electrical signals:  1838: Electrical telegraph. See: Telegraph history  1858: First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable  1876: Telephone. See: Invention of the telephone, , Timeline of the telephone  1880: Telephony via light beam photo phones

Advanced electrical and electronic signals:

 1893: Wireless telegraphy  1896: Radio. See: .  1914: First North American transcontinental telephone calling  1927: Television. See:  1927: First commercial radio-telephone service, U.K.–U.S.  1930: First experimental videophones  1934: First commercial radio-telephone service, U.S.–Japan  1936: World's first public videophone network  1946: Limited capacity Mobile Telephone Service for automobiles  1956: Transatlantic telephone cable  1962: Commercial telecommunications satellite  1964: Fiber optical telecommunications  1965: First North American public videophone network  1969: Computer networking  1973: First modern-era mobile (cellular) phone  1979: INMARSAT ship-to-shore satellite communications  1981: First mobile (cellular) phone network  1982: SMTP email  1983: Internet. See: History of Internet  1998: Mobile satellite hand-held phones  2003: Skype Internet telephony

GOVERNMENT POLICY TELECOMMUNICATION National Telecom Policy - 2012 (NTP - 2012)

PREAMBLE • Telecommunication has emerged as a key driver of economic and social development in an increasingly knowledge intensive global scenario, in which India needs to play a leadership role. National Telecom Policy-2012 is designed to ensure that India plays this role effectively and transforms the socio-economic scenario through accelerated equitable and inclusive economic growth by laying special emphasis on providing affordable and quality telecommunication services in rural and remote areas. Thrust of this policy is to underscore the imperative that sustained adoption of technology would offer viable options in overcoming developmental challenges in education, health, employment generation, financial inclusion and much else. NTP- 2012 is an initiative to create a conducive policy framework to address these issues and to touch lives of all citizens and transform India. By formulating a clear policy regime, NTP-2012 endeavors to create an investor friendly environment for attracting additional investments in the sector apart from generating manifold employment opportunities in various segments of the sector. Availability of affordable and effective communications for the citizens is at the core of the vision and goal of the National Telecom Policy – 2012. • The last decade is characterized by significant penetration of telecommunications in India. The New Telecom Policy 1999 has been a catalyst for growth of the telecom sector. The number of telephone connections, at the end of February 2012, was 943 million, as compared to 41 million at the end of December 2001. This growth has been fuelled by the cellular segment (mobile phones) which alone accounted for 911 million connections at the end of February 2012. The composition of the telecom sector too has witnessed a structural change, with the private sector accounting for 88 % of the total connections. • Today, India is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world. The unprecedented increase in teledensity and sharp decline in tariffs in the Indian telecom sector have contributed significantly to the country‘s economic growth. Besides contributing to about 3% to India‘s GDP, Telecommunications, along with Information Technology, has greatly accelerated the growth of the economic and social sectors. • The National Telecom Policy 2012 (NTP 2012) is conceived against this backdrop. The vision is to transform the country into an empowered and inclusive knowledge-based society, using telecommunications as a platform. • Telecommunications is no longer limited to voice. The evolution from analog to digital technology has facilitated the conversion of voice, data and video to the digital form. Increasingly, these are now being rendered through single networks bringing about a convergence in networks, services and also devices. Hence, it is now imperative to move towards convergence between telecom, broadcast and IT services, networks, platforms, technologies and overcome the existing segregation of licensing, registration and regulatory mechanisms in these areas to enhance affordability, increase access, delivery of multiple services and reduce cost. It will be a key enabler of equitable and inclusive growth. The policy aims to address and enable the coordinated action to respond to the dynamic needs resulting from confluence of telecom, broadcasting and IT sectors. • Given the continued predominant role of wireless technologies in delivery of services in ICT sector, NTP-2012 incorporates framework for increasing the availability of spectrum for telecom services including triple play services (voice, video and data) for which broadband is the key driver. This will be facilitated by deployment of services through appropriate instrumentalities, while safeguarding national interests. • The emerging technology trends in electronics hardware, telecom connectivity and IT will make it possible for millions of citizens to access services electronically in self-service mode using mobile phones and the Internet or through assisted service points such as Common Service Centres etc. Once a mere communication device, the Telephone has now the potential of being an instrument of empowerment. There is need to reorient the telecommunication policy. This vision is made possible through ubiquitous network connectivity of mobile technology, broadband Internet, fiber penetration in all villages, high-technology low-cost affordable devices and software solutions which enable electronic Page 3 of 20 • A concerted effort to boost manufacturing activity is now exigent as robust economic growth in the country is leading to an extraordinarily high demand for electronic products in general and telecom products in particular. NTP-2012 provides a roadmap for India to become a leader in cutting edge, state of the art technologies through R&D and creation and incorporation of Indian IPRs in global standards. This will require measures for boosting entrepreneurship and creating a major global manufacturing hub for telecommunication equipment to achieve self-sufficiency while squarely addressing security and strategic concerns. At the same time establishment of processes and standards for protection of the environment will also be required. • For the continued growth trajectory of telecom sector, it is crucial to establish appropriate mechanisms to achieve balance between competition and consolidation while dealing with the legacy issues in the sector, thus benefiting both the users and providers of telecommunication services. • NTP-2012 recognizes that the rapid growth in the telecom sector requires to be supported by an enhanced pace of human capital formation and capacity building. It becomes imperative to put in place an integrated skill development strategy for the converged ICT sector as a whole so that there is continuous up-gradation of skills in tune with the technological developments. The cornerstone of this strategy is to derive maximal dividend from our young population and their creative abilities. The advent of technologies like cloud computing present a historic opportunity to catapult India‘s vaunted service delivery capabilities to a new level domestically as well globally.

• Introduction of new technologies has posed fresh challenges in network security, communication security and communication assistance to law enforcement agencies. NTP-2012 provides a clear strategy for squarely addressing these concerns. • The PSUs have played a pre-eminent role in provision of telecom services in the country, particularly in rural, remote, backward and hilly areas. Contribution of BSNL and MTNL to broadband penetration in the country is significant. The importance of PSUs in meeting the strategic and security needs of the nation can also not be understated. This policy recognizes that these PSUs will continue to play such important role.

I. VISION To provide secure, reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere for an accelerated inclusive socio-economic development.

II. MISSION • To develop a robust and secure state-of-the-art telecommunication network providing seamless coverage with special focus on rural and remote areas for bridging the digital divide and thereby facilitate socio-economic development. • To create an inclusive knowledge society through proliferation of affordable and high quality broadband services across the nation. • To reposition the mobile device as an instrument of socio-economic empowerment of citizens. • To make India a global hub for telecom equipment manufacturing and a centre for converged communication services. • To promote Research and Development, Design in cutting edge ICTE technologies, products and services for meeting the infrastructure needs of domestic and global markets with focus on security and green technologies. • To promote development of new standards to meet national requirements, generation of IPRs and participation in international standardization bodies to contribute in formation of global standards, thereby making India a leading nation in the area of telecom standardization. • To attract investment, both domestic and foreign.

III. OBJECTIVES

• Provide secure, affordable and high quality telecommunication services to all citizens. • Increase rural tele density from the current level of around 39 to 70 by the year 2017 and 100 by the year 2020. • Provide affordable and reliable broadband-on-demand by the year 2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017 and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed and making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand. • Enable citizens to participate in and contribute to e-governance in key sectors like health, education, skill development, employment, governance, banking etc. to ensure equitable and inclusive growth. • Provide high speed and high quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies by the year 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations by 2020. • Promote innovation, indigenous R&D and manufacturing to serve domestic and global markets, by increasing skills and competencies. • Create a corpus to promote indigenous R&D, IPR creation, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, commercialization and deployment of state-of-the-art telecom products and services during the 12th five year plan period. • Promote the ecosystem for design, Research and Development, IPR creation, testing, standardization and manufacturing i.e. complete value chain for domestic production of telecommunication equipment to meet Indian telecom sector demand to the extent of 60% and 80% with a minimum value addition of 45% and 65% by the year 2017 and 2020 respectively. • Provide preference to domestically manufactured telecommunication products, in procurement of those telecommunication products which have security implications for the country and in Government procurement for its own use, consistent with our World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. • Develop and establish standards to meet national requirements, generate IPRs, and participate in international standardization bodies to contribute in formulation of global standards, thereby making India a leading nation in the area of international telecom standardization. This will be supported by establishing appropriate linkages with industry, R&D institutions, academia, telecom service providers and users. • Simplify the licensing framework to further extend converged high quality services across the nation including rural and remote areas. This will not cover content regulation. • Strive to create One Nation - One License across services and service areas. • Achieve One Nation - Full Mobile Number Portability and work towards One Nation - Free Roaming. • Reposition the from a mere communication device to an instrument of empowerment that combines communication with proof of identity, fully secure financial and other transaction capability, multi-lingual services and a whole range of other capabilities that ride on them and transcend the literacy barrier. • Encourage development of mobile phones based on open platform standards. • Deliver high quality seamless voice, data, multimedia and broadcasting services on converged networks for enhanced service delivery to provide superior experience to users. • Put in place a simplified Merger & Acquisition regime in telecom service sector while ensuring adequate competition. • Optimize delivery of services to consumers irrespective of their devices or locations by Fixed- Mobile Convergence thus making available valuable spectrum for other wireless services. • Promote an ecosystem for participants in VAS industry value chain to make India a global hub for Value Added Services (VAS). • Ensure adequate availability of spectrum and its allocation in a transparent manner through market related processes. Make available additional 300 MHz spectrum for IMT services by the year 2017 and another 200 MHz by 2020. • Promote efficient use of spectrum with provision of regular audit of spectrum usage. • De-licensing additional frequency bands for public use. • Recognize telecom as Infrastructure Sector to realize true potential of ICT for development. • Address the Right of Way (RoW) issues in setting up of telecom infrastructure. • Mandate an ecosystem to ensure setting up of a common platform for interconnection of various networks for providing non-exclusive and non-discriminatory access. • Strengthen the framework to address the environmental and health related concerns pertaining to the telecom sector. • Enhanced and continued adoption of green policy in telecom and incentivize use of renewable energy sources for sustainability. • Protect consumer interest by promoting informed consent, transparency and accountability in quality of service, tariff, usage etc.

IV. STRATEGIES

1. BROADBAND, RURAL TELEPHONY AND UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND (USOF)

.1. To develop an eco-system for broadband in close coordination with all stakeholders, including Ministries/ Government Departments/ Agencies to ensure availability of media for last mile access, aggregation layer, core network of adequate capacity, affordable equipment including user devices, terminals and Customer Premise Equipment and an environment for development of relevant applications. Formulate policies to promote competition by encouraging service providers, whether large or small, to provide value added services under equitable and non- discriminatory conditions. .2. To recognize telecom, including broadband connectivity as a basic necessity like education and health and work towards ‗Right to Broadband‘. .3. To lay special emphasis on providing reliable and affordable broadband access to rural and remote areas by appropriate combination of , wireless, VSAT and other technologies. Optical fiber network will be initially laid up to the village panchayats level by funding from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Extension of optical fiber connectivity from village panchayats to be taken up progressively to all villages and habitations. Access to this Optical Fiber Network will be open, non-discriminatory and technology neutral. .4. Provide appropriate incentives for rural rollout. .5. To revise the existing broadband download speed of 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015 and higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps thereafter. .6. To encourage Fiber to the Home (FTTH) with enabling guidelines and policies, favoring fast transformation of cities and towns into Always Connected society. .7. To incorporate enabling provisions in the current regulatory framework so that existing infrastructure including cable TV networks are optimally utilized for extending high quality broadband services in rural areas also. .8. To establish appropriate institutional framework to coordinate with different government departments/agencies for laying and upkeep of telecom cables including Optical Fiber Cables for rapid expansion of broadband in the country. .9. To leverage the mobile device and SIM Card with enhanced features for enabling secure transactional services including online authentication of identity and financial services. .10. To promote synergies between roll-out of broadband and various Government programs viz e- governance, e-panchayats, MNREGA, NKN, AADHAR, AAKASH tablet etc.

2. QUALITY OF SERVICE AND PROTECTION OF CONSUMER INTEREST

• To strengthen the regulator for ensuring compliance of the prescribed performance standards and Quality of Service (QoS) parameters by the Telecom Service Providers. • To formulate a Code of Practice for Sales and Marketing Communications to improve transparency as well as address security issues relating to Customer Acquisition. • To support the sector regulator in its efforts to enhance consumer awareness about services, tariffs, and QoS. • To make mandatory provision for web based disclosure of area coverage by telecom service providers. • To facilitate establishment of a National Mobile Property Registry for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets. • To undertake legislative measures to bring disputes between telecom consumers and service providers within the jurisdiction of Consumer Forums established under Consumer Protection Act.

3. SECURITY

• To mandate and enforce that the Telecom Service Providers take adequate measures to ensure the security of the communication flowing through their network by adopting contemporary information security standards. • To provide communication assistance to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) through regulatory measures in tune with the extant license guidelines and in conformity with Indian Telegraph Act keeping in view individual privacy and following international practices to the extent possible for fulfilling National Security needs. To develop and deploy State of art system for providing assistance to LEAs. • To create an institutional framework through regulatory measures to ensure that safe-to-connect devices are inducted into the Telecom Network and service providers take measures for ensuring the security of the network. • To build national capacity in all areas - specifically security standards, security testing, interception and monitoring capabilities and manufacturing of critical telecom equipment - that impinges on Telecom network security and communication assistance for law enforcement. • To ensure security in an increasingly insecure cyber space, indigenously manufactured multi- functional SIM cards with indigenously designed chips incorporating specific laid down standards are considered critical. The whole electronics eco-system for this and other purposes, starting from the wafer fab needs to be built and hence is viewed as a key policy objective and outcome. • To mandate standards in the areas of functional requirements, safety and security and in all possible building blocks of the communication network i.e. devices, elements, components, physical infrastructure like towers, buildings etc. • To develop a rational criterion for sharing of costs beyond a threshold limit between Government and the service providers in implementing security measures.

4. PUBLIC SECTOR • To recognize the strategic importance of Telecom PSUs in nurturing/enhancing Government‘s intervention capabilities in matters of national security or international importance, including execution of bilateral projects funded by Government of India. • Appropriately consider the restructuring of the Public Sector Undertakings, under the Department of Telecommunications, in terms of management, manpower and equity. • To encourage Public Sector Units under the DoT to identify and exploit strategic and operational synergies so that they play a significant role in service provision, infrastructure creation, and manufacturing. • To exploit individual strengths of organizations under DoT/DIT to their mutual benefit for ensuring these organizations to effectively flourish in the competitive telecom market while adequately supporting the security needs of the nation. Efforts will be made for according preferential treatment for procurement of products and services rendered by individual organizations. • To recognize and enhance the opportunities available through/within Telecom PSUs for deployment of indigenously developed Telecom products, with Indian IPR, to provide vital support for domestic manufacturing of Indian Telecom products in the long run.

5. CLOUD SERVICES

1. To recognize that cloud computing will significantly speed up design and roll out of services, enable social networking and participative governance and e-Commerce on a scale which was not possible with traditional technology solutions. 2. To take new policy initiatives to ensure rapid expansion of new services and technologies at globally competitive prices by addressing the concerns of cloud users and other stakeholders including specific steps that need to be taken for lowering the cost of service delivery. 3. To identify areas where existing regulations may impose unnecessary burden and take consequential remedial steps in line with international best practices for propelling nation to emerge as a global leader in the development and provision of cloud services to benefit enterprises, consumers and Central and State Governments. 6. FINANCING OF TELECOM SECTOR

1. To create a Telecom Finance Corporation as a vehicle to mobilize and channelize financing for telecom projects in order to facilitate investment in the telecom sector.

2. To endeavor to include telecom sector projects within the ambit of financing from existing entities. 3. To rationalize taxes, duties and levies affecting the sector and work towards providing a stable fiscal regime to stimulate investments and making services more affordable.

7. ROLE OF REGULATOR, CHANGES IN LEGISLATION

7.1. To review the TRAI Act with a view to addressing regulatory inadequacies/ impediments in effective discharge of its functions. 7.2. To undertake a comprehensive review of Indian Telegraph Act and its rules and other allied legislations with a view to making them consistent with and in furtherance of the above policy objectives. 7.3. To take requisite steps to strengthen various units of DoT as may be necessary to carry out functions required to achieve the objectives of this policy.

8. OPERATIONALISATION OF THE POLICY

1. To take suitable facilitator measures to encourage existing service providers to rapidly migrate to the new regime in a uniformly liberalized environment with a level playing field 2. Policy will be operational zed by bringing out detailed guidelines, as may be considered appropriate, from time to time. The primary objective of NTP-2012 is maximizing public good by making available affordable, reliable and secure telecommunication and broadband services across the entire country. The main thrust of the Policy is on the multiplier effect and transformational impact of such services on the overall economy. It recognizes the role of such services in furthering the national development agenda while enhancing equity and inclusiveness. Availability of affordable and effective communications for the citizens is at the core of the vision and goal of the National Telecom Policy – 2012. NTP-2012 also recognizes the predominant role of the private sector in this field and the consequent policy imperative of ensuring continued viability of service providers in a competitive environment. Pursuant to NTP- 2012, these principles would guide decisions needed to strike a balance between the interests of users/ consumers, service providers and government revenue.

COMPETITORS PROFILE Reliance Communications competes with 15 other mobile operators throughout India. They are 1. Aircel 2. Airtel, 3. BSNL 4. Idea, 5. Loop Mobile 6. MTNL 7. MTS 8. Ping Mobile 9. S Tel 10. Tata DoCoMo 11. Tata Indicom 12. Uninor 13. Videocon 14. Virgin Mobile (GSM & CDMA) .

Reliance communications faces competition in the CDMA Internet Providers category from 1. TATA Photon+ 2. MTS MBlaze. 1. TATA TELESERVICES LTD: - Tata Teleservices Limited spearheads the Tata Group‘s presence in the telecom sector. The Tata Group includes over 90 companies and over 350,000 employees worldwide and more than 3.5 million shareholders. Incorporated in 1996, Tata Teleservices is the pioneer of the CDMA 1x technology platform in India. It has embarked on a growth path since the acquisition of Hughes Tele.com (India) Ltd [renamed Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited] by the Tata group in 2002.

It launched mobile operations in January 2005 under the brand name Tata Indicom and today enjoys a pan-India presence through existing operations in all of India‘s 22 telecom Circles. The company is also the market leader in the fixed wireless telephone market. The company‘s network has been rated as the ‗Least Congested‘ in India for six consecutive quarters by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India through independent surveys. The Tata Teleservices Limited bouquet comprises four other brands as well—Virgin Mobile, Walky (which is the brand for fixed wireless phones), the Photon family (the company‘s brand that provides a variety of options for wireless mobile broadband access, and T24. Today, Tata Teleservices Ltd, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, serves over 84 million customers in more than 450,000 towns and villages across the country, with a bouquet of telephony services encompassing Mobile Services, Wireless Desktop Phones, Public Booth Telephony and Wireless Services and enterprise solutions. 2. SISTEMA SHYAM TELESERVICES (MTS): - Sistema Shyam Tele Services Ltd (SSTL) is the fastest growing telecom company in the competitive Indian market, with over 11 million voice subscribers and over 7 lakh mobile broadband customers. SSTL has tied up with Mobile Tele Systems OJSC, a JSFC Sistema company of Russia, to bring the globally acclaimed telecom brand – ―MTS‖ to India.

Millward Brown in its 2011 report on Most Valuable Global Brands has ranked MTS 80th with a brand value of $10.9 billion. Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (SSTL) is a joint venture between Sistema {LSE: SSA} of Russia, the Russian Federation and the Shyam Group of India. The Russian Federation holds a 17.14% stake in the company. Sistema is the majority shareholder with a 56.68% stake, Shyam Group holding a 23.98% stake and the remaining 2.2% being held by the public.  MTS, the mobile telecom service brand of SSTL, has over 11 million customers‘ in India.  MBlaze, the high-speed mobile broadband service, launched in November 2009 has clocked over 700,000 satisfied mobile broadband customers in a very short span of time.  SSTL was the FIRST telecom company in India to launch mobile broadband internet services with speeds up to 3.1 Mbps in the state of Jharkhand in April 2010.

OTHER COMPETITORS

Apart from MTS & TATA several GSM companies are now launching USB Internet Devices using the 3G technology. IDEA, Airtel & AIRTEL are some private competitors, while BSNL remains a dominant Government affiliated Service Provider.

1. BHARTI AIRTEL: - Telecom giant Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti Group has a diverse business portfolio and has created global brands in INDIA9telecommunication sector. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. It has successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild Group to export fresher products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA and has launched Bharti AX Life Insurance Company Ltd under a joint venture with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. BHARTI AIRTEL LTD started in July 7 1995.Its head quarters is at Delhi. In 1998 the company has started their first land line operation. Airtel is the name of their brand. AIRTEL stands for Affectionate, Interested, Respectful, Tolerant, Energetic and loving .Their logo is ―Think fresh Deliver More‖. Their first company is Bharti Cellular Limited under the brand name of Airtel. Another one is Bharti Tele Sonic Ltd under the brand name of India One. Then Bharti Tele Net Ltd under the brand name of Touch Net. Another one is Bharti broad band Ltd under the brand name of Manthra Online. The companies Bharti Telenet Ltd and Bharti Broadband Ltd combined together and form Bharti Broadband and Teleservices Ltd. After sometime the companies Bharti Telescopic Ltd and Bharti Broadband and Teleservices Ltd combined together and form Bharti Infotel Ltd. In 13th September 2004 all the four companies combined together and form Bharti AIRTEL Ltd. Bharti Airtel is one of India's leading private sector providers of telecommunications services with more than 79 million subscribers as of November 2008.Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India‘s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU‘s) –

Airtel Tele media Service Mobile Services Enterprise Services. The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 95 cities. The Enterprise services provident-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand

2. AIRCEL: - The Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current shareholders are the Reddy family of Apollo Hospitals Group of India, with Maxis Communications holding a majority stake of 74%.

Aircel commenced operations in 1999 and became the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu within 18 months. In December 2003, it launched commercially in Chennai and quickly established itself as a market leader ± a position it has held since.

Aircel began its outward expansion in 2005 and met with unprecedented success in the Eastern frontier circles. It emerged a market leader in Assam and in the North Eastern provinces within 18 months of operations. Till today, the company gained a foothold in 18circles including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East, Orissa, Bihar, Jammu &Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, UP(West), UP(East), Maharashtra & Goa and Mumbai.

The Company has currently gained a momentum in the space of telecom in India post the allocation of additional spectrum by the Department of Telecom, Govt. of India for 13new circles across India. These include Delhi (Metro), Mumbai (Metro), Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Goa, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP (West) and UP (East).

Aircel has won many awards and recognitions. Voice and Data gave Aircel the highest rating for overall customer satisfaction and network quality in 2006. Aircel emerged as the top mid-size utility company in Business world list of Best Mid-Size Companies in2007. Additionally, Tele.net recognized Aircel as the best regional operator in 2008.With over 25 million happy customers in the country, Aircel is a full-fledged national operator

3. IDEA: -

IDEA Cellular is an Aditya Birla Group Company, India's first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 25 countries, and is anchored by over 1, 30,000 employees belonging to 30 nationalities. The Group has been adjudged the ‗6th Top Company for Leaders in Asia Pacific Region' in 2009, in a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, in partnership with The RBL Group, and Fortune. The Group has also been rated ‗The Best Employer in India and among the Top 20 in Asia' by the Hewitt-Economic Times and Wall Street Journal Study 2007.

IDEA is the winner of ‗The Emerging Company of the Year Award' at The Economic Times Corporate Excellence Awards 2008-09. The company has received several other national and international recognitions for its path-breaking innovations in products & services. It won the GSM Association Award for ―Best Billing and Customer Care Solution‖ for 2 consecutive years. It was awarded ―Mobile Operator of the Year Award - India‖ for 2007 and 2008 at the Annual Asian Mobile News Awards. Idea Cellular is a wireless company operating in all the 22 telecom circles in India based in Mumbai. It is the 3rd largest GSM company in India behind Airtel and AIRTEL and ahead of state run player BSNL. IDEA Cellular is a publicly listed company, having listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in March 2007.IDEA Cellular is a leading GSM mobile services operator in India with over 58million subscribers, under brand IDEA. It is a pan India integrated GSM operator covering the entire telephony landscape of the country, and has NLD and ILD operations. A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering the most customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India, in an increasingly segmented market.

4. BSNL: - Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India: Wire line, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (known as BSNL, India Communications Corporation Limited) is a public sector communications company in India. It is the India's largest telecommunication company with 24% market share. Its headquarters are at Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi. It has the status of Mini-ratna - a status assigned to reputed Public Sector companies in India. BSNL has installed Quality Telecom Network in the country and now focusing on improving it, expanding the network, introducing new telecom services with ICT applications in villages and wining customer's confidence. Today, it has about 47.3 million line basic telephone capacity,4 million WLL capacity, 20.1 Million GSM Capacity, more than 37382 fixed exchanges, 18000 BTS, 287 Satellite Stations, 480196 Rkm of OFC Cable, 63730Rkm of Microwave Network connecting 602 Districts, 7330 cities/towns and 5.5Lakhs villages. BSNL is the only service provider, making focused efforts and planned initiatives to bridge the Rural-Urban Digital Divide ICT sector. In fact there is no telecom operator in the country to beat its reach with its wide network giving services in every nook & corner of country and operates across India except Delhi &Mumbai including inaccessible areas of Siachen glacier and North-eastern region of the country.

BSNL cellular service, CellOne, has more than 17.8 million cellular customers, garnering 24 percent of all mobile users as its subscribers. That means that almost every fourth mobile user in the country has a BSNL connection. In basic services, BSNL is miles ahead of its rivals, with 35.1 million Basic Phone subscribers i.e. 85 per cent share of the subscriber base and 92 percent share in revenue terms. BSNL has more than 2.5 million WLL subscribers and 2.5 million Internet Customers who access Internet through various modes viz. Dial-up, Leased Line, DIAS, and Account Less Internet (CLI). BSNL has been adjudged as the NUMBER ONE ISP in the country. BSNL has set up a world class multi-gigabit, multi-protocol convergent I infrastructure that provides convergent services like voice, data and video through the same Backbone and Broadband Access Network. At present there are 0.6 million Data One broadband customers. The company has vast experience in Planning, Installation, network integration and Maintenance of Switching & Transmission Networks and also has a world class ISO 9000 certified Telecom Training Institute. BSNL plans to expand its customer base from present 73 million lines to 125 million lines and infrastructure investment plan to the tune of Rs. 733 crores (US$ 16.67million) in the next three years. Today, BSNL is India's largest Telco and one of the largest Public Sector Undertaking with estimated market value of $ 100 Billion. The company is planning an IPO with in 6 months to offload 10% to public in the Rs 300-400 range valuing the company at over $100 billion.

CHAPTER-3 COMPANY PROFILE

INTRODUCTION

AIRTEL Group plc /ˈvoʊdəfoʊn/ is a British multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London and with its registered office in Newbury, Berkshire. It is the world's second-largest mobile telecommunications company measured by both subscribers and 2011 revenues (in each case behind China Mobile), and had 439 million subscribers as of December 2011.

AIRTEL owns and operates networks in over 30 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries. Its AIRTEL Global Enterprise division provides telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65 countries.

AIRTEL has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It had a market capitalisation of approximately £89.1 billion as of 6 July 2012, the third-largest of any company listed on the London Stock Exchange. It has a secondary listing on NASDAQ.

Name

The name AIRTEL comes from voice data fone, chosen by the company to "reflect the provision of voice and data services over mobile phones".

History

The evolution of 'AIRTEL' brand started in 1982 with the establishment of 'Racal Strategic Radio Ltd' subsidiary of Racal Electronics plc – UK's largest maker of military radio technology. By initiative of Jan Stenbeck Racal Strategic Radio Ltd formed a joint venture with Millicom called 'Racal AIRTEL', which would later evolve into the present day AIRTEL.

Evolution as a Racal Telecom brand: 1980 to 1991

AIRTEL's original logo, used until the introduction of the speechmark logo in 1997 In 1980, Sir Ernest Harrison OBE, the then chairman of Racal Electronics plc. agreed to a deal with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc to allow Racal to access some of GEC's tactical battle field radio technology. The head of Racal's military radio division – Gerry Whent was briefed by Ernest Harrison to drive the company into commercial mobile radio. Whent visited GE‘s mobile radio factory in Virginia, USA the same year to understand the commercial use of military radio technology.

Previously in 1979, Jan Stenbeck, a head of a growing Swedish conglomerate, set up an American company, Millicom, Inc., to pursue mobile communications by applying for licences in the United States.

In the summer of 1982, Stenbeck approached Racal‘s Whent about bidding jointly for the UK‘s second cellular radio licence, soon to be awarded, the first going by prior arrangement to British Telecom. The two struck a deal giving Racal 60% of the new company, Racal-Millicom, Ltd, and Millicom 40%. Due to UK concerns about foreign ownership, the terms were revised, and in December 1982, the Racal-Milicom partnership was awarded the second UK mobile phone network license. Final ownership of Racal-Millicom, Ltd was 80% Racal, with Millicom holding 15% plus royalties and venture firm Hambros Technology Trust holding 5%. According to the UK Secretary of State for Industry, "the bid submitted by Racal-Millicom Ltd… provided the best prospect for early national coverage by cellular radio."

AIRTEL was launched on 1 January 1985 under the new name, Racal-AIRTEL (Holdings) Ltd, with its first office based in the Courtyard in Newbury, Berkshire, and shorty thereafter Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited. On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of AIRTEL for GB£110 million; and AIRTEL became a fully owned brand of Racal.

In September 1988, the company was again renamed Racal Telecom. On 26 October 1988, Racal Telecom, majority held by Racal Electronics; went public on the London Stock Exchange with 20% of its stock floated. The successful flotation led to a situation where the Racal's stake in Racal Telecom was valued more than the whole of Racal Electronics. Under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders of Racal, Harrison decides in 1991 to demerge Racal Telecom.

AIRTEL Group, then AIRTEL Airtouch plc: 1991 to 2000

On 16 September 1991, Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as AIRTEL Group, with Gerry Whent as its CEO.

In July 1996, AIRTEL acquired the two thirds of Talkland it did not already own for £30.6 million. On 19 November 1996, in a defensive move, AIRTEL purchased Peoples Phone for £77 million, a 181 store chain whose customers were overwhelmingly using AIRTEL's network. In a similar move the company acquired the 80% of Astec Communications that it did not own, a service provider with 21 stores.

In January 1997, Gerald Whent retired and Christopher Gent took over as the CEO. The same year, AIRTEL introduced its Speechmark logo, composed of a quotation mark in a circle, with the O's in the AIRTEL logotype representing opening and closing quotation marks and suggesting conversation.

On 29 June 1999, AIRTEL completed its purchase of AirTouch Communications, Inc. and changed its name to AIRTEL Airtouch plc. The merged company commenced trading on 30 June 1999. In order to gain anti-trust approval for the merger, AIRTEL sold its 17.2% stake in E-Plus Mobilfunk. The acquisition gave AIRTEL a 35% share of Mannesmann, owner of the largest German mobile network.

On 21 September 1999, AIRTEL agreed to merge its U.S. wireless assets with those of Bell Atlantic Corp to form Wireless. The merger was completed on 4 April 2000, just a few months prior to Bell Atlantic's merger with GTE to form Verizon Communications, Inc.

In November 1999, AIRTEL made an unsolicited bid for Mannesmann, which was rejected. AIRTEL's interest in Mannesmann had been increased by the latter purchase of Orange, the UK mobile operator. Chris Gent would later say Mannesmann's move into the UK broke a "gentleman's agreement" not to compete in each other's home territory. The hostile takeover provoked strong protest in Germany, and a "titanic struggle" which saw Mannesmann resist AIRTEL's efforts. However, on 3 February 2000, the Mannesmann board agreed to an increased offer of £112 billion, then the largest corporate merger ever. The EU approved the merger in April 2000 when AIRTEL agreed to divest the 'Orange' brand, which was acquired in May 2000 by France Télécom. The conglomerate was subsequently broken up and all manufacturing related operations sold off.

AIRTEL Group plc: 2000 to present

The headquarters of AIRTEL Romania in Bucharest

On 28 July 2000, the Company reverted to its former name, AIRTEL Group plc.

In 2001, the Company acquired Eircell, the largest wireless communications company in Ireland, from eircom. Eircell was subsequently rebranded as AIRTEL Ireland. AIRTEL then went on to acquire Japan's third-largest mobile operator J-Phone, which had introduced camera phones first in Japan.

On 17 December 2001, AIRTEL introduced the concept of "Partner Networks", by signing TDC Mobil of Denmark. The new concept involved the introduction of AIRTEL international services to the local market, without the need of investment by AIRTEL. The concept would be used to extend the AIRTEL brand and services into markets where it does not have stakes in local operators. AIRTEL services would be marketed under the dual-brand scheme, where the AIRTEL brand is added at the end of the local brand. (i.e., TDC Mobil- AIRTEL etc.)

In 2007, AIRTEL entered into a title sponsorship deal with the McLaren Formula One team, which has since traded as AIRTEL McLaren Mercedes.

In May 2011, AIRTEL Group Plc bought the rest of the shares of AIRTEL Essar from Essar Group Ltd with value of $5 billion and became a solely owned of AIRTEL Essar.

On 1 December 2011, it acquired the Reading based Bluefish Communications Ltd – an ICT consultancy company. The acquired operations formed the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within its subsidiary – AIRTEL Global Enterprise, which will focus on implementing strategies and solutions in cloud computing, and strengthen its professional services offering.

In April 2012, AIRTEL announced an agreement to acquire Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW) for £1.04 billion. AIRTEL was advised by UBS AG, while Barclays and Rothschild advised Cable & Wireless. The acquisition will give AIRTEL access to CWW's fibre network for businesses, enabling it to take unified communications solutions to large enterprises in UK and globally; and expand its enterprise service offerings in emerging markets. On 18 June 2012, Cable & Wireless' shareholders voted in favour of the AIRTEL offer, exceeding the 75% of shares necessary for the deal to go ahead.

On 24 June 2013, AIRTEL announced it would be buying German cable company Kabel Deutschland. The takeover is valued at €7.7 billion, and was recommended over the bid of rival Liberty Global.

On 2 September 2013, AIRTEL announced it would be selling its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications for $130 billion, in one of the biggest deals in corporate history.

In October 2013, AIRTEL began its rollout of 4G to provincial New Zealand, with the launch of the system in holiday hotspots around Coromandel. Adverts

Since 2010, the adverts feature two bees named Jack and Mike who are voiced by Karl Theobald and Dan Antopolski. Other adverts feature Star Wars character Yoda.

Operations

Africa and the Middle East

Networks in the Middle East and Africa Majority-owned Minority-owned Partner networks DR Congo1 Egypt Kenya Kuwait Ghana Lesotho1 Bahrain

Mozambique1 Qatar2 Libya

Tanzania1 South Africa1 UAE

1Majority stakes held through majority-owned Group 2Effective ownership is not majority, but full control exercised by the group.

Egypt

In November 1998, AIRTEL Egypt network went live under the name ClickGSM.

On 8 November 2006, the Company announced a deal with Telecom Egypt, resulting in further co-operation in the Egyptian market, and increasing its stake in AIRTEL Egypt. After the deal, AIRTEL Egypt was 55% owned by the group, while the remaining 45% was owned by Telecom Egypt.

On 28 January 2011, AIRTEL complied with Egyptian government instructions to suspend Internet service "in selected areas" during a period of anti-Mubarak protests. The company issued a statement that "Under Egyptian legislation, the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it." AIRTEL also received public and media criticism for allowing the authorities to send mass pro-government messages via SMS over their network during the protests. One such message requested that "honest and loyal men" should "confront the traitors and criminals". AIRTEL later issued a statement asserting that they had no choice but to allow the messages to be broadcast, and that they had complained to the Egyptian authorities about the practice.[45]

Kuwait

On 18 September 2002, AIRTEL signed a Partner Network Agreement with MTC group of Kuwait. The agreement involved the rebranding of MTC to MTC-AIRTEL. On 29 December 2003, AIRTEL signed another Partner Network Agreement with Kuwait's MTC group. The second agreement involved co-operation in Bahrain and the branding of the network as MTC- AIRTEL.

South Africa (Vodacom)

On 3 November 2004, the Company announced that its South African affiliate Vodacom had agreed to introduce AIRTEL's international services, such as AIRTEL live! and partner agreements, to its local market.

In November 2005, AIRTEL announced that it was in exclusive talks to buy a 15% stake of VenFin in Vodacom Group, reaching agreement the following day. AIRTEL and Telkom then had a 50% stake each in Vodacom. AIRTEL now owns 65% of Vodacom after purchasing a 15% stake from Telkom.

On 9 October 2008, the company offered to acquire an additional 15 per cent stake in Vodacom group from Telkom. The finalised details of the agreement were announced on 6 November 2008. The agreement called for Telkom to sell 15 per cent of its 50 per cent stake in Vodacom to the group, and demerge the other 35 per cent to its shareholder. Meanwhile, AIRTEL has agreed to make Vodacom its exclusive sub-Saharan Africa investment vehicle, as well as continuing to maintain the visibility of the Vodacom brand. The transaction is closed in May/June 2009. On 18 May 2009, Vodacom entered the JSE Limited stock exchange in South Africa after AIRTEL increased its stake by 15% to 65% to take a majority holding, despite disputes by local trade unions.

In April 2011, Vodacom, rebranded themselves with the AIRTEL logo.

Qatar

In December 2007, a AIRTEL Group-led consortium was awarded the second mobile phone licence in Qatar under the name "AIRTEL Qatar". AIRTEL Qatar is located at QSTP, the Qatar Science & Technology Park

Ghana

On 3 July 2008, AIRTEL agreed to acquire a 70% stake in Ghana Telecom for $900 million. The acquisition was consummated on 17 August 2008. The same group-led consortium won the second fixed-line licence in Qatar on 15 September 2008.

On 15 April 2009, Ghana Telecom, along with its mobile subsidiary OneTouch, was rebranded as AIRTEL Ghana.

U.A.E.

On 28 January 2009, the group announced a partner network agreement with Du, the second-largest operator of the United Arab Emirates. The agreement involved co-operation on international clients, handset procurement, mobile broadband etc.

Libya

On 24 February 2010, the group signed a partner network agreement with the second- largest operator in Libya, al Madar.

The Americas

In the United States, AIRTEL used to own 45% of Verizon Wireless, the country's largest mobile carrier after their merger with Alltel. The percentage of the customer base, and revenues of Verizon Wireless that AIRTEL consolidated is slightly lower, since some Verizon Wireless subsidiaries had minority investors. (Hence the exact percentages that AIRTEL and Verizon report vary from period to period: in June 2006 AIRTEL reported that Verizon Wireless owned 98.6% of its customers at that date.) Before this joint venture was formed, AIRTEL merged with AirTouch Communications of the U.S. in June 1999, and changed its name to AIRTEL Airtouch plc. In September 1999, AIRTEL Airtouch announced a $70-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic Corp. Verizon Wireless was composed of Bell Atlantic's and AIRTEL AirTouch's U.S. wireless assets, and began operations on 4 April 2000. However, Verizon Communications – the name Bell Atlantic took upon its 30 June 2000 buyout of GTE – owns a majority of Verizon Wireless, and AIRTEL's branding is not used, nor is the CDMA network compatible with GSM phones. This relationship has been quite profitable for AIRTEL, but there have historically been three problems with it. The first is the above-mentioned incompatibility with the GSM 900/1800 MHz standard used by AIRTEL's other networks, and the consequent difficulty of offering roaming between AIRTEL's U.S. and other networks. The other two stem from the fact that AIRTEL does not have management control over Verizon Wireless. AIRTEL is thus unable to use the AIRTEL brand for its U.S. operations, and (perhaps more importantly) has no control of dividend policy at Verizon Wireless, and is therefore entirely at the mercy of Verizon management with respect to cash flow from Verizon Wireless.

Perhaps as a consequence of these reasons, AIRTEL made a bid for the entirety of AT&T Wireless when that company was for sale in 2004. Had this bid been successful, AIRTEL would presumably have sold its stake in Verizon Wireless, and then rebranded the resultant business as AIRTEL. However, Cingular Wireless, at the time a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth (both now part of AT&T Inc.), ultimately outbid AIRTEL and took control of AT&T Wireless (the combined wireless carrier is now AT&T Mobility), and AIRTEL's relationship with Verizon has continued. Early in 2006, Verizon re-iterated their desire to buy out the remaining 45% of stock of Verizon Wireless from AIRTEL Group. AIRTEL has also repeatedly indicated that it would be willing to buy out Verizon's stake.

Verizon has announced that its 4G data network will be LTE, which is considered part of the GSM path and not the CDMA2000 path Verizon has been using.

On 11 May 2008, AIRTEL sealed a trade agreement with the Chilean Entel PCS Chile, in which Entel PCS has access to the equipment and international services of AIRTEL, and AIRTEL will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. This step will give the AIRTEL brand access to a market of over 15 million people, currently divided among three companies: Telefonica Movistar, Claro, and Entel PCS.

On August 2013, AIRTEL has started the MVNO operation in Brazil, as a corporative M2M operator.

On 2 September 2013, it was announced that Verizon Communications would acquire the remaining stake it holds in Verizon Wireless for around $130 billion.

Asia-Pacific

Networks in Asia-Pacific Majority-owned Minority-owned Partner networks

Australia Fiji Afghanistan Armenia

India Azerbaijan Hong Kong

New Zealand Malaysia Samoa

Singapore Sri Lanka

Taiwan Thailand

Turkmenistan Uzbekistan

In July 1993, BellSouth New Zealand's network went live, and October 1993 AIRTEL Australia's network also went live. This was followed in July 1994 by AIRTEL Fiji's network going live.

In November 1998, AIRTEL purchased BellSouth New Zealand, which later became AIRTEL New Zealand. In 1999, J-Phone launched the J-sky mobile internet service in response to DoCoMo's i-Mode service. In December 2002 J-Phone's 3G network went live.

On 1 October 2003, J-Phone became 'AIRTEL', and J-Phone's mobile internet service J- Sky became AIRTEL Live!. On 3 November 2003, Singapore became a part of the community as M1 was signed as partner network.

In December 2004, AIRTEL Australia agreed to deploy high-speed MPLS backbone network built by Lucent Worldwide Services using Juniper hardware.[48]

Then in April 2005, SmarTone changed the name of its brand to 'SmarTone-AIRTEL', after both companies signed a Partner Network Agreement. In August 2005, AIRTEL launched 3G technology in New Zealand, and in October 2005, it began launching 3G technology in Australia. On 28 October 2005, the Company announced the acquisition of a 10 per cent stake in India's Bharti Televentures, which operates the largest mobile phone network in India under the brand name AirTel. On 22 December 2005, the Company announced the completion of the acquisition of the 10% stake in Bharti Televentures of India.

The headquarters of AIRTEL New Zealand in Auckland City In January 2006, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka were added to the AIRTEL footprint as AIRTEL Group signed a partner network agreement with Telekom Malaysia. On 17 March 2006, AIRTEL announced an agreement to sell all its interest in AIRTEL Japan to SoftBank for £8.9 billion, of which £6.8 billion will be received in cash on closing of deal. AIRTEL Japan later changed its name to SoftBank Mobile. In November 2010, AIRTEL divested its remaining Softbank shares. On 9 October 2006, AIRTEL New Zealand bought New Zealand's 3rd largest internet service provider, iHug, and on 1 November 2006, AIRTEL Australia signed the Australian Football League (AFL)'s biggest individual club sponsorship deal with the Brisbane Lions for seasons 2007, 2008 and 2009.

On 6 February 2007, along with the partnership with Digicel Caribbean (see below), Samoa was added as a Partner Market. Then on 11 February 2007, the Company agreed to acquire a controlling interest of 67% in Hutch Essar for US$11.1 billion. At the same time, it agreed to sell back 5.6% of its AirTel stake back to the Mittals. AIRTEL would retain a 4.4% stake in AirTel. On 21 September 2007, Hutch was rebranded to AIRTEL in India.

On 6 February 2007, AIRTEL Group signed a three-year partnership agreement with Digicel Group. The agreement, which includes Digicel's sister operation in Samoa, will result to the offering of new roaming capabilities. The two groups will also become preferred roaming partners of each other. Along with Digicel's markets, the AIRTEL brand is now present in 81 countries, regions, and territories. What is interesting to note, is that as well as being partners, Digicel and AIRTEL are also rival operators in Fiji, where Digicel Fiji recently launched in October 2008, and AIRTEL owns a minority (49%) stake in AIRTEL Fiji.

On 10 February 2008, AIRTEL announced the launching of M-Paisa mobile money transfer service on Roshan's (Afghanistan's largest GSM operator) network: Afghanistan was added to the AIRTEL footprint.

On 5 September 2008, AIRTEL purchased Australia's largest bricks and mortar mobile phone retailer Crazy John's adding 115 retail stores to its local operations. On 9 February 2009, AIRTEL Australia announced a merger with 3/Hutchison via a joint venture company VHA Pty Ltd, which would offer products under the AIRTEL brand. in Thailand is signed as a partner network of the Group on 25 March 2009.

On 19 June 2009, AIRTEL-Hutchison Australia (VHA) announced the end of its outsourcing of retail operations. VHA committed to buying back and managing its entire retail operation, including 208 AIRTEL-branded retail outlets Australia-wide. This project was slated to be completed by 1 September 2009.

On 31 August 2009, VHA enabled an extended 900 MHz 3G UMTS network which functions outside their 2,100 MHz 3G network, boosting AIRTEL's 3G population coverage from around 8% to around 94% on dual-band 900/2,100 MHz 3G UMTS devices.

Nar Mobile in Azerbaijan was signed as a Partner Network on 22 July 2009, while Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan was signed on 12 November 2009.

In February 2013, AIRTEL together with China Mobile, has participated in bidding for one of the two newly opened Myanmar Mobile licences.

In October 2013, it was reported by Reuters that AIRTEL planned to invest as much as $2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) to buy out minority shareholders in AIRTEL India.

Europe

Networks in Europe Majority-owned Partner networks

Albania Austria Belgium

Czech Republic Bulgaria Channel Islands

Germany Croatia Cyprus

Greece Denmark Estonia

Hungary Finland Faroe Islands

Ireland Iceland Latvia Italy Lithuania Luxembourg

Malta F.Y.R.O.Macedonia Norway

Netherlands Russia Serbia

North Cyprus Slovenia Sweden

Portugal Switzerland Ukraine

Romania

Spain

Turkey

UK

AIRTEL Hungary is a subsidiary of AIRTEL Global mobile telephone company operating in Hungary, the company started to operate in 7 July 1999. In February 2002, Radiolinja of Finland joined as a Partner Network. Radiolinja later changed its named to Elisa. Later that year, the Company rebranded Japan's J-sky mobile internet service as AIRTEL live!, and on 3 December 2002, the AIRTEL brand was introduced in the Estonian market following the signing of a Partner Network Agreement with Radiolinja (Eesti). Radiolinja (Eesti) later changed its name to Elisa.

On 7 January 2003, the Company signed a group-wide Partner agreement with mobilkom Austria. As a result, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia were added to the community. In April 2003, Og AIRTEL was introduced in the Icelandic market, and in May 2003, Omnitel (Omnitel Pronto-Italia) was rebranded AIRTEL Italy. On 21 July 2003, Lithuania was added to the community, with the signing of a Partner Network agreement with Bitė.

In February 2004, AIRTEL signed a Partner Network Agreement with Luxembourg's LuxGSM, and a Partner Network Agreement with Cyta of Cyprus. Cyta agreed to rename its mobile phone operations to Cytamobile-AIRTEL. In April 2004, the Company purchased Singlepoint airtime provider from John Caudwell (Caudwell Group), and approx 1.5 million customers onto its base for £405million, adding sites in Stoke-on-Trent (England), to existing sites in Newbury (HQ), Birmingham, Warrington and Banbury. In November 2004, AIRTEL introduced 3G services into Europe. In June 2005, the Company increased its participation in Romania's Connex to 99%[citation needed], and also bought the Czech mobile operator Oskar. On 1 July 2005, Oskar of the Czech Republic was rebranded as Oskar-AIRTEL. Later that year, on 17 October 2005, AIRTEL Portugal launched a revised logo, using new text designed by Dalton Maag, and a 3D version of the Speechmark logo, but still retaining a red background and white writing (or vice versa). Also, various operating companies started to drop the use of the SIM card pattern in the company logo. (The rebranding of Oskar-AIRTEL and Connex-AIRTEL also does not use the SIM card pattern.) A custom typeface by Dalton Maag (based on their font family InterFace) formed part of the new identity.

On 28 October 2005, Connex in Romania was rebranded as Connex-AIRTEL, and on 31 October 2005, the Company reached an agreement to sell AIRTEL Sweden to for approximately €1 billion. After the sale, AIRTEL Sweden became a Partner Network. In December 2005, AIRTEL won an auction to buy Turkey's second-largest mobile phone company, Telsim, for US$4.5 billion. In December 2005, AIRTEL Spain became the second member of the Group to adopt the revised logo: it was phased in over the following six months in other countries.

In 2006, the Company rebranded its Stoke-on-Trent site as Stoke Premier Centre, a centre of expertise for the company dealing with Customer Care for its higher value customers, technical support, sales and credit control. All cancellations and upgrades started to be dealt with by this call centre. On 5 January 2006, AIRTEL announced the completion of the sale of AIRTEL Sweden to Telenor. On February 2006, the Company closed its Birmingham Call Centre. On 1 February 2006, Oskar AIRTEL became AIRTEL Czech Republic, adopting the revised logo, and on 22 February 2006, the Company announced that it was extending its footprint to Bulgaria with the signing of Partner Network Agreement with Mobiltel, which is part of mobilkom Austria group.

The headquarters of AIRTEL Ireland in Dublin In April 2006, the Company announced that it had signed an extension to its Partner Network Agreement with BITE Group, enabling its Latvian subsidiary "BITE Latvija" to become the latest member of AIRTEL's global partner community. Also in April 2006, AIRTEL Sweden changed its name to Telenor Sverige AB, and Connex-AIRTEL became AIRTEL Romania, also adopting the new logo. On 30 May 2006, AIRTEL announced the then biggest loss in British corporate history (£14.9 billion), and plans to cut 400 jobs; it reported one-off costs of £23.5 billion due to the revaluation of its Mannesmann subsidiary. On 24 July 2006, the respected head of AIRTEL Europe, Bill Morrow, quit unexpectedly,[55] and on 25 August 2006, the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Belgium's Proximus for €2 billion. After the deal, Proximus was still part of the community as a Partner Network. On 5 October 2006, AIRTEL announced the first single brand partnership with Og AIRTEL which would operate under the name AIRTEL Iceland, and on 19 December 2006, the Company announced the sale of its 25% stake in Switzerland's for CHF4.25 billion (£1.8 billion)., After the deal, Swisscom would still be part of the community as a Partner Network. Finally in December 2006, the Company completed the acquisition of Aspective, an enterprise applications systems integrator in the UK, signalling AIRTEL's intent to grow a significant presence and revenues in the information and communication technologies (ICT) marketplace.

The AIRTEL Lion on the Löwenparade in Munich, Germany Early in January 2007, Telsim in Turkey adopted AIRTEL dual branding as Telsim AIRTEL, and on 1 April 2007, Telsim AIRTEL Turkey dropped its original brand and became AIRTEL Turkey. In addition, AIRTEL Turkey also gives service in Northern Cyprus. On 1 May 2007, AIRTEL added Jersey and Guernsey to the community, as Airtel was signed as Partner Network in both crown dependencies. In June 2007, the AIRTEL live! mobile internet portal in the UK was relaunched. Front page was now charged for, and previously "bundled" data allowance was removed from existing contract terms. All users were given access to the "full" web rather than a 'Walled Garden', and AIRTEL became the first mobile network to focus an entire media campaign on its newly launched mobile internet portal in the UK. On 1 August 2007, AIRTEL Portugal launched AIRTEL Messenger, a service with Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. At the end of 2007, AIRTEL Germany was ranked 6th in Europe by subscriber numbers, whilst its Italian operation was listed as 10th. AIRTEL UK was ranked 13th, whilst Spain was listed in 16th place.

On 17 April 2008, AIRTEL extended its footprint to Serbia as Vip mobile was added to the community as a Partner Network, and on 20 May 2008, the Company added VIP Operator as a Partner Network, thereby extending the global footprint to the Republic of Macedonia. In May 2008, Kall of the Faroe Islands rebranded as AIRTEL Faroe Islands.

On 30 October 2008, the company announced a strategic, non-equity partnership with Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) group of Russia. The agreement adds Russia, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan to the group footprint.

On 20 March 2009, it was announced that the group's Luxembourg partner has been changed to : the agreement with LuxGSM was not renewed in favour of Tango, the Luxembourg unit of another partner network, Belgacom of Belgium.

In March 2013, the Spanish operations of AIRTEL signed an agreement with Orange S.A. to co- invest €1 billion in the expansion of Spain's fibre-optic cable broadband network. This will enable AIRTEL to reach an additional 6 million customers in Spain by 2017.

AIRTEL Global Enterprise

A map showing the countries where AIRTEL Global Enterprise has operations (coloured in red)

AIRTEL Global Enterprise is the business services division, and a wholly owned subsidiary of AIRTEL Group. It was established in April 2007 to provide telecommunications and information technology services to large corporations.

It offers integrated communication solutions in cloud computing, unified communications and collaboration. Its services include domestic and international voice and data, Machine to Machine services, mobile email, mobile broadband, managed services, mobile payment and mobile recording.

In December 2011, it acquired the Reading-based Bluefish Communications Ltd – an ICT consultancy company. The acquired operations will form the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within VGE,[36] which will focus on implementing strategies and solutions in cloud computing, and strengthen its professional services offering.[67]

It operates in over 65 countries, operated by its "Northern Europe" (based in London, United Kingdom), "Central Europe", "Southern Europe and Africa", "Asia Pacific & Sub- Saharan Africa" (based in Singapore) and "Americas" geographical divisions. VGE's major customers include Deutsche Post, The Linde Group, Unilever, and Volkswagen Group.

Products and services

A AIRTEL shop selling a range of products in Leeds, England

Products promoted by the Group include AIRTEL live!, AIRTEL Mobile Connect USB Modem, AIRTEL Connect to Friends, AIRTEL Eurotraveller, AIRTEL Freedom Packs, AIRTEL at Home, AIRTEL 710 and Amobee Media Systems.

In October 2009, it launched AIRTEL 360, a new internet service for the mobile, PC and Mac. This was discontinued in December 2011 after disappointing hardware sales. This was after The Director of Internet Services resigned in September 2010 tweeting "5 days before I leave AIRTEL. Freedom beckons." In February 2010, AIRTEL launched world's cheapest mobile phone known as AIRTEL 150, will sell for below $15 (£10) and is aimed at the developing world. It will initially be launched in India, Turkey and eight African countries including Lesotho, Kenya and Ghana.

Mobile money transfer services

In March 2007, , which is part owned by AIRTEL and the leading mobile communication provider in Kenya, launched a mobile payment solution developed by AIRTEL. M-PESA is aimed at mobile customers who do not have a bank account, typically because they do not have access to a bank or their income is insufficient to justify a bank account. The M- PESA system allows customers to deposit and withdraw cash via local agents, and transfer money to other mobile phone users via SMS.

By February 2008, the M-PESA money transfer system in Kenya had gained 1.6 million customers. By 2011 there were fourteen million M-Pesa accounts by which held 40 percent of the country‘s savings. Following M-PESA‘s success in Kenya, AIRTEL announced that it was to extend the service to Afghanistan. The service here was launched on the Roshan network under the brand M-Paisa with a different focus to the Kenyan service. M-Paisa was targeted as a vehicle for microfinance institutions' (MFI) loan disbursements and repayments, alongside business to business applications such as salary disbursement. The Afghanistan launch was followed in April 2008 by the announcement of further a further launch of M-PESA in Tanzania, South Africa and India.

In February 2012, AIRTEL announced a worldwide partnership with Visa. To introduce a AIRTEL Mobile Wallet, initially in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and the UK. "The AIRTEL mobile wallet represents the next stage of the revolution," says , AIRTEL's group CEO. This will enable AIRTEL subscribers to pay for goods and services using their mobile phones instead of coins and banknotes. mHealth services

In November 2009, AIRTEL announced the creation of a new business unit focused on the emerging mHealth market (the application of mobile communications and network technologies to healthcare). One of its early success stories is with the Novartis-led "SMS for Life" project in Tanzania, for which AIRTEL developed and deployed a text-message based system that enables all of the country‘s 4,600 public health facilities to report their levels of anti- malarial medications so that stock level data can be viewed centrally in real-time, enabling timely re-supply of stock. During the SMS for Life pilot, which covered 129 health facilities over six months, stock-outs dropped from 26% to 0.8%, saving thousands of lives.

AIRTEL has also been active in mHealth from a philanthropic perspective. The AIRTEL Group Foundation is a founder member of the mHealth Alliance, supporting the adoption of mHealth through policy research and advocacy and the development of interoperable and sustainable mHealth solutions.

AIRTEL Foundation

The AIRTEL Foundation is a recognised charity which supports and initiates projects which use mobile technology to benefit the vulnerable. It is described by AIRTEL as ‗Mobile for Good‘; using mobile technology to support good causes. They often work in collaboration with other charitable groups. Below are some examples of their initiatives:

 TECSOS – mobile phones have been adapted to allow victims of domestic violence to activate immediate contact with the emergency services if they are in danger  Paediatric Epilepsy Remote Monitoring System – a monitoring system that allows physicians to remotely make patient observations  Safe Taxi System – an initiative in Portugal that consists of technology that taxi drivers can use to alert police if they are in danger of being assaulted  Learning with AIRTEL Solution – technology that allows teachers in India to use graphical and multi-media content to enhance their teaching  The World of Difference UK programme - successful applicants choose charities for which they work either full-time for two months or part-time for four months (minimum 15 hours a week). The charities are provided with £2,500, with each winner receiving the balance as a salary after NI and tax have been paid.

Corporate affairs

Part of the AIRTEL campus in Newbury, Berkshire; AIRTEL's registered address and UK headquarters, and its world headquarters until 2009

Senior management

In a period just short of twenty years from its initial public offering, the Company had had just three Chief Executives. The fourth CEO, Vittorio Colao, stepped up from Deputy Chief Executive in July 2008. Each of his predecessors made a personal contribution to the development of the Company.

Sir Gerald Whent, at that time an Executive with Racal Electronics plc, was responsible for the bid for a UK licence. The Mobile Telecoms division was de-merged, and was floated on the London Stock Exchange in October 1988 and Sir Gerald became Chief Executive of Racal Telecom plc. Over the next few years the company grew to become the UK's Market Leader, changing its name to AIRTEL Group plc in the process.

Sir Christopher Gent took over as Chief Executive in January 1997, after Sir Gerald's retirement. Sir Christopher was responsible for transforming AIRTEL from a small UK operator into the global behemoth that it is today, through the merger with the American AirTouch and the takeover of Germany's Mannesmann, the Goldman Sachs chief advisor on the deal was Scott Mead.

Arun Sarin was the driving force behind the Company's move into emerging markets such as Asia and Africa, through the purchases such as that of Turkish operator Telsim, and a majority stake in Hutchison Essar in India. Faced with increased competition, and penetration rates above 100% in the more mature European markets, he saw it necessary to diversify from being a mobile-only business into a company which provided all telecommunications services. This has seen AIRTEL launch DSL and other fixed-line services in markets such as Germany and the UK.

Chief Executive Tenure

Sir Gerald Whent October 1988 – December 1996

Sir Christopher Gent January 1997 – July 2003

Arun Sarin July 2003 – July 2008

Vittorio Colao Since July 2008

Financial results AIRTEL reports its results in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

AIRTEL has some large minority stakes, which are not included in its consolidated turnover. In order to provide additional information on the overall scale and growth trends of its business, it publishes "proportionate turnover" figures, and these are included in the tables below. For example, if a business in which it owns a 45% stake has turnover of £10 billion, that equals £4.5 billion of proportionate turnover for AIRTEL. Proportionate turnover is not an official accounting measure, and AIRTEL's proportionate turnover should not be compared with other companies' statutory turnover.

AIRTEL also produces proportionate customer number figures on a similar basis, e.g. if an operator in which it has a 30% stake has 10 million customers that equals 3 million proportionate AIRTEL customers.

Year ended Turnover Profit before Profit for the Basic eps Proportionate 31 March £m tax £m year £m (pence) customers (m)

2012 46,417 9,549 7,003 13.74 446.5 2011 45,884 9,498 7,870 15.20 347.7 2010 44,472 8,674 8,618 16.44 341.1 2009 41,017 4,189 3,080 5.81 302.6 2008 35,478 9,001 6,756 12.56 260 2007 31,104 (2,383) (5,297) (8.94) 206.4 2006* 29,350 (14,835) (21,821) (35.01) 170.6 2005 34,073 7,951 6,518 9.68 154.8 2004 36,492 9,013 6,112 8.70 133.4

*Losses for year to 31 March 2006 reflect write downs of assets, principally in relation to the Mannesmann acquisition. Proportionate turnover includes £7,100 million from discontinued operations.

Criticisms

UK Uncut protestors outside a AIRTEL shop in Liverpool.

In September 2010, an investigation by Private Eye magazine revealed certain details of AIRTEL's tax avoidance activities. It was reported that AIRTEL routed the acquisition of Mannesmann through a Luxembourg subsidiary, set up to avoid paying tax on the deal, and continued to place its profits in Luxembourg. Following a long legal struggle with HMRC (during which a senior HMRC official, John Connors, switched sides to become head of tax at AIRTEL), it was eventually agreed that AIRTEL would pay £1.25 billion related to the acquisition. Based on AIRTEL's accounts, experts have estimated the potential tax bill written off as a result of the negotiations was over £6 billion.

The news of this legal tax avoidance sparked angry protests, beginning in October 2010 and ongoing as of April 2011, outside AIRTEL shops across the UK, organised under the banner of UK Uncut. The first protests caused the simultaneous closure of over a dozen stores, including the flagship Oxford Street branch.

In 2011, Private Eye magazine and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism alleged that AIRTEL's Swiss branches were run by a single part-time bookkeeper. The report claimed hardly any business was done from there, indicating that the main purpose of the Zug office was tax avoidance. The report claimed the money was borrowed from the Swiss branch of the Luxembourg company, allowing it to take advantage of Luxembourg‘s laws, which exempts foreign branches of companies from tax, and Swiss laws, which almost completely exempt local branches of foreign companies. According to the expose, this would have otherwise generated a British tax bill on a little over £2 billion. It said AIRTEL publishes a single, combined set of accounts for its Luxembourg subsidiaries and their Swiss branches. For the one company, profits worth £1.6 billion were taxed at less than one per cent in 2011, and the profits are likely to have been attributed to Switzerland. In its response to these allegations, AIRTEL has said the Swiss branch has not been involved in AIRTEL‘s global financing for a number of years. It is, therefore, irrelevant in respect to global financing arrangements.

AIRTEL was also assessed a US$2.5 billion tax over its acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa's Indian assets in 2007, a demand that it contests. In a recent event dated 20 January 2012, Indian highest court ruled that AIRTEL is not liable for taxes and penalties of up to $4.4 billion (£2.8 billion).

AIRTEL was implicated in the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Egypt's 2011 demonstrations. On 27 January, AIRTEL, responsible for much of Egypt's telecommunication infrastructure, shut off all voice and data services for Egyptian citizens and businesses at the request of the Egyptian Government under Hosni Mubarak. The Daily Telegraph of the UK reported, "The Egyptian government‘s action is unprecedented in the ." U.S.-based Internet intelligence firm Renesys stated, "in an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears to have ordered service providers to shut down all international connections to the Internet." AIRTEL Group CEO Vittorio Colao said the company was obliged by law to comply with the instructions of the Egyptian government. In the company‘s annual general meeting, on 26 June, the campaign groups Access and Fair Pensions asked AIRTEL to endorse a plan to prevent facing similar demands in the future.

In Australia, particularly towards the end of 2010, AIRTEL have been heavily criticised due to allegations of poor customer service and severe technical inadequacies, which earned them their nickname "Vodafail" – a website of the same name still exists. In response, they have developed a "new" network, and now provide a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

INTRODUCTION OF THE COMPANY IN INDIA

AIRTEL India , formerly AIRTEL Essar and Hutchison Essar, is the third largest mobile network operator in India after Airtel and Reliance Communication by subscriber base. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has approximately 147.48 million customers as of December 2012.

In July 2011, AIRTEL Group agreed terms for the buy-out of its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. The UK firm paid $5.46 billion to its Indian counterpart to take Essar out of its 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It will leave AIRTEL owning 74% of the Indian business, while the other 26% will be owned by Indian investors, in compliance with Indian law. On 11 February 2007, AIRTEL agreed to acquire the controlling interest of 67% held by Li Ka Shing Holdings in Hutch-Essar for US$11.1 billion, pipping Reliance Communications, Hinduja Group, and Essar Group, which is the owner of the remaining 33%. The whole company was valued at USD 18.8 billion. The transaction closed on 8 May 2007. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India with good presence in the metros.

AIRTEL India provides 2.75G services based on 900 MHz and 1800 MHz digital GSM technology. AIRTEL India launched 3G services in the country in the January–March quarter of 2011 and plans to spend up to $500 million within two years on its 3G networks.

3G

On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. AIRTEL paid 11617.86 million (the second highest amount in the auctions) for spectrum in 9 circles. The circles it will provide 3G in are Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Kolkata, Maharashtra & Goa, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal.

On 16 March 2011, AIRTEL launched 3G services in Uttar Pradesh (East) in the city of Lucknow. AIRTEL had already launched limited 3G services in Chennai and Delhi earlier, but the Uttar Pradesh (East) launch counts as its first fully commercial launch. This makes AIRTEL the fifth private operator (seventh overall) to launch its 3G services in the country following Tata Docomo, Reliance Communications, Airtel and Aircel.

On 23 June 2011 AIRTEL launched 3G service in Kerala by joining with Idea in an Intra Circle Roaming agreement. Initially AIRTEL 3G services will be available in the following cities in Kerala – Ernakulam, Aluva, Calicut, Koyilandy, Alappuzha, Cherthala, Malappuram and Manjeri. On 28 June 2012, AIRTEL launched a new international roaming package under which the users shall have not to pay multiple rentals in the countries they are visiting.

Subscriber Base

Following is the AIRTEL India subscriber base statistics as on January, 2013.

Subscriber Base Statistics as on January, 2013

Telecom Cicle No. of Subscribers

Gujarat 15,801,116

Uttar Pradesh(East) 14,526,236

Maharashtra 12,977,123

West Bengal 11,165,667

Tamil Nadu 9,777,927

Rajasthan 8,565,366

Uttar Pradesh(West) 8,999,073

Andhra Pradesh 6,080,916

Delhi 8,449,120

Goa 7,134,576

Karnataka 6,452,620

Kerala 6,067,506

Bihar 6,381,278 Subscriber Base Statistics as on January, 2013

Telecom Cicle No. of Subscribers

Kolkata 4,084,284

Punjab 4,309,853

Haryana 4,437,015

Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh 4,101,877

Chennai 2,091,411

Odisha 2,789,575

Assam 2,188,073

North East 928,563

Jammu & Kashmir 666,009

Himachal Pradesh 475,329

Mumbai 6,160,353

Total number of AIRTEL India Subscribers : 141,519,840, i.e. 21.54% of the total 657,158,013 Indian mobile phone subscribers.

Awards and recognition

The Brand Trust Report, 2011 published by Trust Research Advisory has ranked AIRTEL as the 16th most trusted brand in India.

Controversies

AIRTEL India is involved in a Rs 11,000-crore tax dispute case with Indian government.

Timeline

1992: Hutchison Whampoa and MAX group establish Hutchison Max 2000: Acquisition of Delhi operations and entry into Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Gujarat markets through Essar acquisition

2001: Won auction for licences to operate GSM services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chennai

2003: Acquired AirCel Digilink (ADIL — ESSAR Subsidiary) which operated in Rajastan, Uttar Pradesh East and Haryana telecom circles and rebranded it 'Hutch'.

2004: Launched in three additional telecom circles of India namely Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal.

2005: Acquired BPL Mobile operations in 3 circles. This left BPL with operations only in Mumbai, where it still operates under the brand 'Loop Mobile'.

2007: AIRTEL acquires a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar for $10.7 billion. The company is renamed AIRTEL Essar. 'Hutch' is rebranded to 'AIRTEL'.

2008: AIRTEL acquires the licences in remaining 7 circles and starts its pending operations in Madhya Pradesh circle, as well as in Orissa, Assam, North East and Bihar.

2011: AIRTEL Group buys out its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. It paid $5.46 billion to take Essar out of its 33% stake in the Indian subsidiary. It left AIRTEL owning 74% of the Indian business.

AIRTEL RECHARGE OPTION

o Prepaid online recharge o AIRTEL M-Shop o ETopUp o Recharge cards o Check your balance o Direct Top-Up o Check your validity AIRTEL COVERAGE IN ANDHRA PRADESH

CHAPTER- 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

INTRODUCTION OF MARKETING

Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves. Marketing is used to identify the customer, to satisfy the customer, and to keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, it can be concluded that marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the last 2-3 centuries.

The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable.

Marketing is essential about marshalling the resources of an organization so that they can meet the changing needs of the customers on whom the organization depends upon. As a verb marketing is all about how an organization addresses its markets.

Marketing is the ³The management process which identifies anticipates &supplies customer requirements efficiently &profitably.

Marketing is the total system of interesting business activities defined to plan , piece, promote& distribution want satisfying products& services to present & potential consumers.---- Williams. J.Stantion³Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the follow of goods & services from the producer to the consumer or user³---American Marketing Association. A social & managerial process , by which individuals & groups obtain What they need & want, through creating & exchanging product & value With others.³Satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process´- Philip Kotler 'Marketing is not about providing products or services it is essentially about providing changing benefits to the changing needs and demands of the customer - P.Tailor. The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitability´- Charted Institute of Marketing. THE SCOPE OF MARKETING deals with identifying and meeting human and social needs. It is about meeting needs profitably´. Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and growing customers through creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value. The aim of marketing is not selling. It is to know and understand the customer so well that products and services fits him and sells itself.

Marketing people are involved in marketing 10 types of entities:

. Good . Services . Experiences . Events . Persons . Places . Properties . Organizations . Information . Ideas The four steps in the marketing process are:

. Analyzing market opportunities . Developing marketing strategies . Planning marketing programs . Managing the marketing effort

CONSUMER SATISFICATION The modern concepts of marketing realized that measuring consumer needs or behavior was not enough.´ CONSUMER SATISFICATION´ should be the core and then the correct perception on which marketing policies of our organization should be built.

Management must think of itself not as producing products but as providing customer creating value satisfaction. ´Customer satisfaction has a vital role in sustaining and improving hold on the market. Brief descriptions about the various measures that are needed to improve customer orientation have also been dealt with. Consider the fact today is customer face a plenitude of products in every category. Customer will be having high and raising expectation of quality and service. In the face of their vast choices, the customer will gravitate to the offering that the best meet their individual needs and expectation. They will buy one of the bases of their perception value. Therefore it is not surprising that today is winning companies are those succeed best in satisfying indeed delighting their target customer. They pay extreme attention to quality and service to meeting and even exceeding customer expectation. They complete vigorously and at the co-operated smartly with their strategy partners in their supply and distribution chain. They pursue efficiently and yet are responsible and flexible. Customer satisfaction is the outcome felt by buyers who have expectation. Customers are satisfied when their expectation are met and delighted when their expectations are exceeded. Satisfied customers remain loyal longer, buy more, and are less sensitive and talk favorable about the company. From this it is clear that the satisfied customer will be less sensitive towards the fluctuating price and offensive marketing typically cost more than defensive marketing, because it requires much effort and cost to induce satisfied customers to switch away from their current suppliers. We should also consider the fact that the cost of attracting a new customer may be five times the cost of keeping the current customer happy. ‗Therefore the companies are intending in developing stronger bones and loyalty with their customers.

Customer satisfaction, a term frequently used in marketing, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals." In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 71 percent responded that they found a customer satisfaction metric very useful in managing and monitoring their businesses.

It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is often part of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.

"Within organizations, customer satisfaction ratings can have powerful effects. They focus employees on the importance of fulfilling customers‘ expectations. Furthermore, when these ratings dip, they warn of problems that can affect sales and profitability. . . . These metrics quantify an important dynamic. When a brand has loyal customers, it gains positive word-of- mouth marketing, which is both free and highly effective."

Therefore, it is essential for businesses to effectively manage customer satisfaction. To be able do this, firms need reliable and representative measures of satisfaction.

"In researching satisfaction, firms generally ask customers whether their product or service has met or exceeded expectations. Thus, expectations are a key factor behind satisfaction. When customers have high expectations and the reality falls short, they will be disappointed and will likely rate their experience as less than satisfying. For this reason, a luxury resort, for example, might receive a lower satisfaction rating than a budget motel—even though its facilities and service would be deemed superior in 'absolute' terms."

The importance of customer satisfaction diminishes when a firm has increased bargaining power. For example, cell phone plan providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, participate in an industry that is an oligopoly, where only a few suppliers of a certain product or service exist. As such, many cell phone plan contracts have a lot of fine print with provisions that they would never get away if there were, say, a hundred cell phone plan providers, because customer satisfaction would be way too low, and customers would easily have the option of leaving for a better contract offer.

DEFINITION OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which customers are happy with the products and services provided by a business. Customer satisfaction levels can be measured using survey techniques and questionnaires. Customer satisfaction is equivalent to making sure that product and service performance meets customer expectations. Customer satisfaction is the perception of the customer that the outcome of a business transaction is equal to or greater than his/her expectation. Customer satisfaction occurs when acquisition of products and/or services provides a minimum negative departure from expectations when compared with other acquisitions. Gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfaction customers are most likely to be loyal and to make repeat orders and to use a wide range of services offered by a business There are many factors which lead in high levels of customer satisfaction including. Products and services which are customer focused and hence provide high levels of value for money. What is clear about customer satisfaction is that customers are most likely to appreciate the goods and services that they buy if they are made to feel special. This occurs when they feel that the products and services that they buy have been specially produced for them or for people like them.

PURPOSE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACATION

"Customer satisfaction provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase intentions and loyalty." "Customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected indicators of market perceptions. Their principal use is twofold:"

1. "Within organizations, the collection, analysis and dissemination of these data send a message about the importance of tending to customers and ensuring that they have a positive experience with the company‘s goods and services." 2. "Although sales or market share can indicate how well a firm is performing currently, satisfaction is perhaps the best indicator of how likely it is that the firm‘s customers will make further purchases in the future. Much research has focused on the relationship between customer satisfaction and retention. Studies indicate that the ramifications of satisfaction are most strongly realized at the extremes." On a five-point scale, "individuals who rate their satisfaction level as '5' are likely to become return customers and might even evangelize for the firm. (A second important metric related to satisfaction is willingness to recommend. This metric is defined as "The percentage of surveyed customers who indicate that they would recommend a brand to friends." When a customer is satisfied with a product, he or she might recommend it to friends, relatives and colleagues. This can be a powerful marketing advantage.) "Individuals who rate their satisfaction level as '1,' by contrast, are unlikely to return. Further, they can hurt the firm by making negative comments about it to prospective customers. Willingness to recommend is a key metric relating to customer satisfaction."

IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION The importance of customer satisfaction and support is increasingly becoming a vital business issue as organization realize the benefits of Customer Relationship Management(CRM) for providing effective customer service. Professionals working within customer focused business or those running call centers or help desks, need to keep informed about the latest customer satisfaction techniques for running a valuable customer service function. From small customer service departments to large call centers, the importance of developing valued relationship with customers using CRM is essential to support customer and long-term business growth

CONSTRUCTION OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace.

"Customer satisfaction is measured at the individual level, but it is almost always reported at an aggregate level. It can be, and often is, measured along various dimensions. A hotel, for example, might ask customers to rate their experience with its front desk and check-in service, with the room, with the amenities in the room, with the restaurants, and so on. Additionally, in a holistic sense, the hotel might ask about overall satisfaction 'with your stay.'"

As research on consumption experiences grows, evidence suggests that consumers purchase goods and services for a combination of two types of benefits: hedonic and utilitarian. Hedonic benefits are associated with the sensory and experiential attributes of the product. Utilitarian benefits of a product are associated with the more instrumental and functional attributes of the product (Batra and Athola 1990).

Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organization's products.

Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the "confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation.

The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey with a set of statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured. Their satisfaction is generally measured on a five-point scale.

"Customer satisfaction data can also be collected on a 10-point scale."

"Regardless of the scale used, the objective is to measure customers‘ perceived satisfaction with their experience of a firm‘s offerings." It is essential for firms to effectively manage customer satisfaction. To be able do this, we need accurate measurement of satisfaction.

Good quality measures need to have high satisfaction loadings, good reliability, and low error variances. In an empirical study comparing commonly used satisfaction measures it was found that two multi-item semantic differential scales performed best across both hedonic and utilitarian service consumption contexts. According to studies by Wirtz & Lee (2003), they identified a six-item 7-point semantic differential scale (e.g., Oliver and Swan 1983), which is a six-item 7-point bipolar scale, that consistently performed best across both hedonic and utilitarian services. It loaded most highly on satisfaction, had the highest item reliability, and had by far the lowest error variance across both studies. In the study, the six items asked respondents‘ evaluation of their most recent experience with ATM services and ice cream restaurant, along seven points within these six items: ―please me to displeased me‖, ―contented with to disgusted with‖, ―very satisfied with to very dissatisfied with‖, ―did a good job for me to did a poor job for me‖, ―wise choice to poor choice‖ and ―happy with to unhappy with‖. A semantic differential (4 items) scale (e.g., Eroglu and Machleit 1990), which is a four- item 7-point bipolar scale, was the second best performing measure, which was again consistent across both contexts. In the study, respondents were asked to evaluate their experience with both products, along seven points within these four items: ―satisfied to dissatisfied‖, ―favorable to unfavorable‖, ―pleasant to unpleasant‖ and ―I like it very much to I didn‘t like it at all‖.

The third best scale was single-item percentage measure, a one-item 7-point bipolar scale (e.g., Westbrook 1980). Again, the respondents were asked to evaluate their experience on both ATM services and ice cream restaurants, along seven points within ―delighted to terrible‖.

It seems that dependent on a trade-off between length of the questionnaire and quality of satisfaction measure, these scales seem to be good options for measuring customer satisfaction in academic and applied studies research alike. All other measures tested consistently performed worse than the top three measures, and/or their performance varied significantly across the two service contexts in their study. These results suggest that more careful pretesting would be prudent should these measures be used.

Finally, all measures captured both affective and cognitive aspects of satisfaction, independent of their scale anchors. Affective measures capture a consumer‘s attitude (liking/disliking) towards a product, which can result from any product information or experience. On the other hand, cognitive element is defined as an appraisal or conclusion on how the product‘s performance compared against expectations (or exceeded or fell short of expectations), was useful (or not useful), fit the situation (or did not fit), exceeded the requirements of the situation (or did not exceed).

Delivering customer value and satisfaction value chain:

The value chain as a tool for identifying ways to create more customer value, every firm has a collection of activities that are performed to design, produce market deliver and support it products. The value chain identifies nine strategically relevant activities. This nine value creating activity consists of five primary activities and four support activities. The primary activities represent the sequence of bringing materials into the business. Converting them into final products, shipping out final products, marketing them and providing service. The support activities procurement, technology development, human resource management and firm infrastructure

 Value – delivering network: To be successful the firms also need to look for competitive advantage beyond its own operations, into the value chain of its suppliers, distributors and customers. Many companies today have partnered with specific suppliers and distributors to create a superior value delivery network

 Attracting and retaining customers: In addition to attracting the new customers and retaining the existing customers many companies are intent on developing stronger bonds and loyalty in the supply chain

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN 7 STEPS

It‘s a well known fact that no business can exist without customers. In the business of Website design, it‘s important to work closely with your customers to make sure the site or system you create for them is as close to their requirements as you can manage. Because it‘s critical that you form a close working relationship with your client, customer service is of vital importance. What follows are a selection of tips that will make your clients feel valued, wanted and loved.

1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings: -

This is the most daunting and downright scary part of interacting with a customer. If you‘re not used to this sort of thing it can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Rest assured, though, it does get easier over time. It‘s important to meet your customers face to face at least once or even twice during the course of a project.

My experience has shown that a client finds it easier to relate to and work with someone they‘ve actually met in person, rather than a voice on the phone or someone typing into an email or messenger program. When you do meet them, be calm, confident and above all, take time to ask them what they need. I believe that if a potential client spends over half the meeting doing the talking, you‘re well on your way to a sale.

2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your Clients Informed: -

This goes without saying really. We all know how annoying it is to wait days for a response to an email or phone call. It might not always be practical to deal with all customers‘ queries within the space of a few hours, but at least email or call them back and let them know you‘ve received their message and you‘ll contact them about it as soon as possible. Even if you‘re not able to solve a problem right away, let the customer know you‘re working on it.

A good example of this is my Web host. They‘ve had some trouble with server hardware which has caused a fair bit of downtime lately. At every step along the way I was emailed and told exactly what was going on, why things were going wrong, and how long it would be before they were working again. They also apologised repeatedly, which was nice. Now if they server had just gone down with no explanation I think I‘d have been pretty annoyed and may have moved my business elsewhere. But because they took time to keep me informed, it didn‘t seem so bad, and I at least knew they were doing something about the problems. That to me is a prime example of customer service.

3. Be Friendly and Approachable: -

A fellow Site Pointer once told me that you can hear a smile through the phone. This is very true. It‘s very important to be friendly, courteous and to make your clients feel like you‘re their friend and you‘re there to help them out. There will be times when you want to beat your clients over the head repeatedly with a blunt object – it happens to all of us. It‘s vital that you keep a clear head, respond to your clients‘ wishes as best you can, and at all times remain polite and courteous.

4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service Policy: -

This may not be too important when you‘re just starting out, but a clearly defined customer service policy is going to save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. If a customer has a problem, what should they do? If the first option doesn‘t work, then what? Should they contact different people for billing and technical enquiries? If they‘re not satisfied with any aspect of your customer service, who should they tell?

There‘s nothing more annoying for a client than being passed from person to person, or not knowing who to turn to. Making sure they know exactly what to do at each stage of their enquiry should be of utmost importance. So make sure your customer service policy is present on your site — and anywhere else it may be useful.

5. Attention to Detail (also known as ‘The Little Niceties’): -

Have you ever received a Happy Birthday email or card from a company you were a client of? Have you ever had a personalised sign-up confirmation email for a service that you could tell was typed from scratch? These little niceties can be time consuming and aren‘t always cost effective, but remember to do them. Even if it‘s as small as sending a Happy Holidays email to all your customers, it‘s something. It shows you care; it shows there are real people on the other end of that screen or telephone; and most importantly, it makes the customer feel welcomed, wanted and valued.

6. Anticipate Your Client’s Needs & Go Out Of Your Way to Help Them Out:

Sometimes this is easier said than done! However, achieving this supreme level of understanding with your clients will do wonders for your working relationship.

Take this as an example: you‘re working on the front-end for your client‘s exciting new ecommerce endeavor. You have all the images, originals and files backed up on your desktop computer and the site is going really well. During a meeting with your client he/she happens to mention a hard-copy brochure their internal marketing people are developing. As if by magic, a couple of weeks later a CD-ROM arrives on their doorstep complete with high resolution versions of all the images you‘ve used on the site. A note accompanies it which reads:

"Hi, you mentioned a hard-copy brochure you were working on and I wanted to provide you with large-scale copies of the graphics I’ve used on the site. Hopefully you’ll be able to make use of some in your brochure."

Your client is heartily impressed, and remarks to his colleagues and friends how very helpful and considerate his Web designers are. Meanwhile, in your office, you lay back in your chair drinking your 7th cup of coffee that morning, safe in the knowledge this happy customer will send several referrals your way.

7. Honour Your Promises: -

It‘s possible this is the most important point in this article. The simple message: when you promise something, deliver. The most common example here is project delivery dates.

Clients don‘t like to be disappointed. Sometimes, something may not get done, or you might miss a deadline through no fault of your own. Projects can be late, technology can fail and sub- contractors don‘t always deliver on time. In this case a quick apology and assurance it‘ll be ready ASAP wouldn‘t go amiss.  Conclusion: - Customer service, like any aspect of business, is a practiced art that takes time and effort to master. All you need to do to achieve this is to stop and switch roles with the customer. What would you want from your business if you were the client? How would you want to be treated? Treat your customers like your friends and they‘ll always come back.

GRAPHICALREPRESENTATION

Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings Respond to Messages Honour Your Promptly & Promises Keep Your Clients Informed

CUSTOMER SATISFACTIO . Anticipate Your Client’s N Be Friendly and Needs & Go Out Approachable Of Your Way to Help Them Out

Attention to Detail (also Have a Clearly- Defined known as ‘The Customer Little Service Policy Niceties’)

WHAT CONSTITUTES SATISFACTION?

We cannot create customer satisfaction just by meeting customer is requirements fully because these have to be met in any case. However failing short is certain to create dissatisfaction

Major Attributes of customer satisfaction in banking industry can be summarized as:

 Product quality  Premium Outflow  Return on Investment  Services  Responsiveness and ability to resolve complaints and reject reports.  Overall communication, accessibility and attitude. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS

Formal survey has emerged as by far the best method of periodically the customer satisfaction. The surveys are not marketing tools but an information gaining tool. Enough homework needs to be before embarking on the actual survey. This includes:

 Defining Objectives of the Survey  Design Survey approach  Develop questionnaires and forms  Administer Survey (Email, Telephone or Post)  Method of compiling data and analyzing the findings  Format of the report to present the findings. There is no point in asking irrelevant questions on a customer satisfaction questionnaire. The basic purpose is to find out what we are doing right or wrong. Where is the scope for improvement, where do we stand vis-à-vis other suppliers. How we can serve the customer better?

A customer satisfaction measurement survey should at least identify the following objectives:

 Importance to customers (Customers priorities)  Customer is perception of supplier is performance  Your performance relative to customer is priorities

Method to Measure Customer Satisfaction

Companies use the following methods to measure customer satisfaction.

1) Complaints and suggestion system: Companies obtaining complaints through their customer service centers, and further suggestions were given by customers to satisfy their desires.

2) Customer satisfaction surveys: Responsive companies obtain a direct measure of customer satisfaction by periodic surveys. They send questionnaires to random sample of their customers to find out how they feel about various aspects of the company is performance and also solicit views on their competitor is performance. It is useful to measure the customer is willingness to recommend the company and brand to other persons.

3) Lost Customer Analysis: Companies should contact customers who have stopped buying or who have switched to another supplier to learn why this happened.

4) Consumer Behavior Vs Consumption Behavior: Consumer behavior refers to the manner in which an individual reaches decision related to the selection, purchases and use of goods and services. Walters and Paul says that, consumer behavior is the process whereby the individuals decide what, when, how and from whom to purchase goods & services. Consumer behavior relates to an individual person (Micro behavior) where as consumption behavior relates to and to the mass or aggregate of individuals (Macro behavior) consumers behavior as a study focuses on the decision process of the individual consumer or consuming unit such as the family. In contrast the consumption behavior as a study is to do with the explanation of the behavior of the aggregate of consumers or the consuming unit. Consumer is a pivot, around which the entire system of marketing revolves. The study of buyer behavior is one of the most important keys to successful mark.

CHAPTER- 4 DATA ANALYSIS

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

1. Are you satisfied with the offers of AIRTEL 2G?

MAXIMUM 70

MODERATE 20

MINIMUM 10

NIL 0

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 maximum moderae minimum nil

Interpretation

According to the graph out of 100 people 70% are maximum satisfied with AIRTEL 2G 20% are moderate satisfied and 10% are minimum satisfied but there is no people those are not satisfied with the service

2. Are you satisfied with the offers of AIRTEL 3G

MAXIMUM 85

MODERATE 10

MINIMUM 5

NIL 0

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 maximum moderae minimum nil

Interpretation

According to the graph out of 100 people 85% are maximum satisfied with AIRTEL 3G services and 10% are moderate satisfied and 5% are minimum satisfied but there is no people those are not satisfied with the service

3. Is the internet speed of AIRTEL 3G is satisfying the users?

MAXIMUM 90

MODERATE 05

MINIMUM 05 NIL 0

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 maximum moderae minimum nil

Interpretation According to the graph out of 100 people 90% are maximum satisfied with AIRTEL 3G internet speed and 5% are moderate satisfied and 5% are minimum satisfied but there is no people those are not satisfied with the service

4. Do you think that features of AIRTEL 3G matches with other Telecom services?

MAXIMUM 80

MODERATE 15

MINIMUM 5 NIL 0

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 maximum moderae minimum nil

Interpretation According to the graph out of 100 people 80% are saying that the features are matching with other telecom service 15% are moderate saying that the features are matching with other telecom service and 5% are minimum saying that the features are matching with other telecom service but there is no people those are not satisfied with the service

5. If you are already the owner AIRTEL communication, are you fully satisfied with the

network and services?

EXCELLENT 50

GOOD 40

MODERATE 5 LESS 5

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 EXCELLENT GOOD MODERATE LESS

Interpretation According to the graph out of 100 people 50% are saying excellent to AIRTEL communication 40% are saying good to AIRTEL communication 5% are saying moderate to AIRTEL communication 5% are saying less to AIRTEL communication

6. With which offers and services of AIRTEL you are satisfied?

2G 40

3G 60

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 2G 3G

Interpretation According to the graph out of 100 people 40% are satisfied with 2Gservices and offers 60% are satisfied with 2Gservices and offers

7. Are you satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as compare to other

telecom services?

EXCELLENT 60

GOOD 20

MODERATE 15

LESS 5

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 EXCELLENT GOOD MODERATE LESS

Interpretation According to the graph out of 100 people 60% are satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as compare to other telecom services 20% are satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as compare to other telecom services 15% are satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as compare to other telecom services 5% are satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as compare to other telecom services

8. Are you satisfied with price of AIRTEL as compared to other telecom service?

EXCELLENT 55

GOOD 25

SATISFIED 10

UNSATISFIED 10

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 EXCELLENT GOODS SATISFIED UNSATISFIED

Interpretation

According to the graph out of 100 people 55% are saying excellent to AIRTEL price 25% are saying good to AIRTEL price 10% are saying satisfied to AIRTEL price 10 are saying unsatisfied to AIRTEL communication

9. Are you satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL as compared to other telecom service?

MAXIMUM 55

MODERATE 30

MINIMUM 10

NIL 5

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 MAXIMUM MODERATE MINMUM NIL

Interpretation According to the graph out of 100 people 55% satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL 30% are satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL 10% satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL 5% satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL

10. Which service is mostly liked by the youth?

2G 20

3G 80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0 2G 3G

Interpretation

According to the graph out of 100 people among the youth 20% are satisfied with 2G services and 80% are satisfied with 2Gservices

Company No. of respondents

AIRTEL 120

Airtel 30

Idea 10

BSNL 10

Reliance 20

Tata 10

140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Interpretation

 120 respondents have rated AIRTEL the first place among various cell service providers  30 respondents have rated Airtel the first place among cell service providers  10 respondents have rated idea the first place among various cell service providers  10 respondents have stated BSNL the first place among various call service providers  20 respondents have stated reliance the first place among various cell service providers  10 respondents have stated Tata the first place among various cell service providers. DATA ANALYSIS OF GSM MOBILE MARKET SHARE IN INDIA- TELECOM COMPANY SHARE{%}

BHARTI AIRTEL 30.86%

AIRTEL ESSAR 23.87%

IDEA CELLULAR 15.19%

BSNL 15.08%

AIRCEL 8.38%

RELIANCE 4.0%

MTNL 1.17%

LOOP MOBILE 0.69%

UNINOR 0.64%

STEL 0.13%

35

30

25

20

15 GSM MOBILE MARKET

10

5

0

CHAPTER- 5 FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

FINDINGS

 80% are satisfied with 2Gservices  55% satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL 30 are satisfied with the

festive offers of AIRTEL

 55% are saying excellent to AIRTEL price  60% are satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as

compare to other telecom services  60% are satisfied with 2Gservices and offers

 50% are saying excellent to AIRTEL communication

 80% are saying that the features are matching with other telecom service

 90% are maximum satisfied with AIRTEL 3G internet speed

 85% are maximum satisfied with AIRTEL 3G services

 70% are maximum satisfied with AIRTEL 2G

 120 respondents have rated AIRTEL the first place among various cell service providers

SUGGESTIONS 1. Should bring improvement in their promotional strategy. 2. Should improve their 3G scheme so that many people can utilize the service 3. Bring changes in the pricing rate of 3g services 4. Start new schemes in the SMS offers

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Online resources

 www.wikipedia.com

 AIRTEL .COM

 www.tataphoton.com

 www.mtsindia.in

2. Marketing management – Philip Kotler

3. Research methodology – C.R. Kothari

4. Strategic management & Business Policy – Prof. K. Siva Rama Krishna

QUESTIONAIRE

QUESTIONAIRE

1. Are you satisfied with the offers of AIRTEL 2G?

a. MAXIMUM b. MODERATE c. MINIMUM d. NIL 2. Are you satisfied with the offers of AIRTEL 3G?

b. MAXIMUM e. MODERATE f. MINIMUM g. NIL 3. Is the internet speed of AIRTEL 3G is satisfying the users?

a) MAXIMUM b) MODERATE c) MINIMUM d) NIL 4. Do you think that features of AIRTEL 3G matches with other Telecom services?

a. MAXIMUM b. MODERATE c. MINIMUM d. NIL 5. If you are already the owner AIRTEL communication, are you fully satisfied with

the network and services?

a. MAXIMUM b. MODERATE c. MINIMUM d. NIL

6. With which offers and services of AIRTEL service you are satisfied?

a. 2G service b. 3G service 7. Are you satisfied with the internet and modem services of AIRTEL as compare to

other telecom services? a) EXCELLENT b) GOOD c) MODERATE d) LESS e) NIL 8. Are you satisfied with price of AIRTEL as compared to other telecom service? a) EXCELLENT b) GOOD c) SATISFIED d) UNSATISFIED 9. Are you satisfied with the festive offers of AIRTEL as compared to other telecom service? a) MAXIMUM b) MODERATE c) MINIMUM d) NIL 10. Which service is mostly liked by the youth? a) 2G services b) 3G service